30 Before 30: Read the Bible all the way through (in a year!)

Oh hi there! In case you missed it, here's my 25% progress post about this goal, which has some pretty funny verses I found.

I have been busy blogging this month, but not on this blog.  In fact, that's a whole other post that I need to get to stat.  But first, I need to post a delayed post about completing another one of my 30 Before 30, reading the Bible all the way through!  I started this item on October 24, 2011, Taylor and I's second wedding anniversary and completed it on October 23, 2012 in under a year!

I truly enjoyed daily reading of the Bible.  I learned a lot and was able to put into context all the stories I've read in pieces my whole life.  I made over 500 bookmarks, so now when I want to go back and read something, I have lots of choices of good passages that I already like!

If anyone is looking to do this, I recommend the iPhone/iPad/Android app YouVersion and they will connect you directly to the plan.  You can also visit: http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/. 

Here's my medal!!

Today (yep, just today)

I can't remember the last time I just blogged about my day.  I think it was like 2008.  Seriously.

Today wasn't overly eventful, but it was a nice, fun, festive day and I happened to take a bunch of photos, so I figured why not blog about it!?

First thing this morning, I took Taylor to school to work on a project.  Since I had a little time to kill between that and my 10am tennis match, I decided to check out the one of the 2 Ann Arbor dog parks that I had not yet seen.  It was awful!  No other dogs. Small. Mostly dirt (not grass).  We hadn't been there 5 minutes and I could tell Nashville was pretending to have fun just so it wouldn't hurt my feelings (am I projecting human emotions on him that are too complex?  I think not, I mean look at this face!

)

Anyway, we left the dog park (much to Nash's joy) and headed to my tennis match.  Now, I just started playing Tennis in June, but if I do say so myself, I'm getting pretty good considering how long I've played.  At least that's what I thought this morning, even after seeing my 55 year old opponent, Jane.  We started to warm up with easy half-court lobs and things were going pretty well.  Then she suggested we back it up and warm up full court and...

WHAM!
BANG!
TAKE THAT!

She was smashing shots at me (and in-bounds, goshdarnit) like a 55-year-old Maria Sharapova (seriously!). Turns out she was in the league of people just 1 level better than me (?!) but they didn't have enough people so they combined them (without warning!).

Anyway, needless to say, I did not win.  She won 6-1 in the first set and 6-0 in the second set.  :(

And she said that patronizing thing every one of my senior citizen opponents have said after they beat me: "Your strength is your speed, and the rest will come with time." Translation: "You may be young and able to run to all my shots, but you suck enough at everything else that I still beat you."  Tennis; the great equalizer.

After tennis, I had precious little time to eat lunch and relax before I had to get ready to head out for a 5K that a few friends and I were running called the Holiday Hustle.  Taylor and Nashville were nice enough to come cheer us on.  Here we are before the start, all decked out in our holiday best:

 That's Heather, Theresa, Zoe, Lana, Me and Nashville

Blurry...

The race was fun.  My friend Theresa told me after our first mile, which was 10:20 that she was hoping to break 30 minutes.  I had no goal since I have run...wait, let me do some math...5 miles since my sinus surgery.  So I was just going to hang with everyone and go whatever pace was comfortable.  But when I found out she had a goal and that we would have to be focused to make it, I took it as a personal challenge. We ran together the rest of the way and I'm happy to report that Theresa got her best 5K time by a full minute: 29:31!  Way to go, Theresa!

Finally, after the race we headed straight to downtown Detroit for the 40th annual Noel Night.  It's a night in early December each year where all of the museums, cultural centers and libraries downtown open their doors for free and decorate for the holidays.  They have music, crafts and games for kids, snacks, and opportunities to do some holiday shopping.

It is really crowded and we got there a little late because of the race, so we didn't get to do everything, but we did enjoy what we did do:

The Detroit Library, we got cider and donuts here and toured some of the collections:

We didn't go in the Detroit Institute of Art, but it is a beautiful sight from the outside

Here we are:

And then when we got tired of walking around (that didn't take long after tennis and a 5K!), we headed to a place I've wanted to check out ever since it was on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, the Polish Village Cafe in the old Polish neighborhood of Detroit, Hamtramck.  My grandma's whole family is from Poland and she and my grandfather grew up in the predominantly Polish and Ukranian areas of Detroit back in the 30s, so I love discovering these places.  I only wish Grandma Lucyk could have been around to go with us!

They have the BEST (and only, I admit) dill pickle soup that I have ever had.  We also got their pierogies and a Hungarian Pancake with goulash on top.  It was amazing, and the place was so cozy and vibrant, you had a hard time believing that you were in Detroit, Michigan rather than a Polish Village.

Bonus, I have a potluck tomorrow where I'm supposed to bring food from my culture.  I had no idea what to make (my only idea was mac'n'cheese and I was putting that under "American," not Polish).  Thank goodness they sold the soup to go!

 Decorations:

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

Today's post is not a 30 Before 30 (even though it should be, time is running out!  I have 9 months left!!).  It's a post-because-I-am-lame-and-haven't-blogged-in-a-month post.

So my parents moved to Arizona back in September, and since they were already out west, our whole family including aunts, uncles and cousins decided to make the trip out to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Riverton, Wyoming for the holiday.  All told there are 19 of us here for dinner tonight, and it's already been quite an adventure!

The first crew to arrive came in last Saturday, 5 days before Thanksgiving.  Then some more of them, including my brother, traveled out on Sunday.  The rest of us (my mom and dad, Taryn and Taylor) got here last night after all flying into Denver and driving the 5 hours to Riverton.  Before we got here, the rest of them went to Jackson Hole for a night.  I went to Jackson back when I was 11 years old, and it is such a beautiful place, I'm so jealous!  I'm also jealous because they decided to do old timey photos and we missed out.  But they are SO good, how can we be mad?

The cutest child in the world, my cousins' son Zane, who is almost 11 months old and too adorable for words.

My Aunt Sheryl and Uncle Geoff built their dream home a couple of years ago and it is just amazing!  The house faces snow-capped mountains and has the million dollar view through picture windows that flank a 15-foot stone fireplace.

They also have more toys and things to do than, well, than we know what to do with!

You name it: a huge John Deere tractor

 a new Shelby mustang,

a monster truck,

dogs,

 horses,

 and a Ranger side-by-side four-by-four. Taylor wants one for Christmas now.

 And that's just the outside!

They also have a large pole barn that they lived in when they were building their house.  It's completely insulated and has a huge camper inside it.  Taylor and I are sleeping on a bed in the middle of the barn, and not 8 feet away is the area where they store their...um...pets.  Case in point:

Today is Thanksgiving and I have spent most of the day in front of the TV watching the Lions try (and fail) to take down the 9-1 Houston Texans and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Meanwhile, Taylor has been dutifully hanging with his brother in law, father in law, and uncles in law, doing manly, Lucyk-style thing like moving a propane tank and setting up a deer hunting blind.  I haven't seen him all day!

Now we're about to eat dinner and (hopefully) remember all we have to be thankful for.  Like family, the beauty of nature, and fun times.

Here's to the same for you and yours!!

30 Before 30: Complete a dozen half marathons

This Sunday I completed another of my 30 Before 30 items: Finish a dozen half marathons!  Here's the list of all the half marathon's I've done:

Race Name and Date

1. Bronx Half Marathon - 2/11/2007
2. More Half Marathon - 3/25/2007
3. Brooklyn Half Marathon - 4/14/2007
4. New York City Half Marathon - 8/5/2007
5. Ft Lauderdale Half Marathon - 2/17/2008
6. New York City Half Marathon - 8/16/2009
7. Manhattan Half Marathon - 1/24/2010
8. Brooklyn Half Marathon - 5/22/2010 - Personal Best 1:52:47
9. Queens Half Marathon - 7/24/2010
10. Bronx Half Marathon - 8/15/2010
11. Miami Half Marathon - 1/27/2012
12. Detroit Half Marathon - 10/21/2012 - Second Best 1:54:45

Sunday was the Detroit Free Press/Talmer Bank Marathon and Half Marathon.  I somehow wrangled my brother and Taylor to do it too.  Hey, a girl's gotta have good company for these sorts of endeavors, you know, the ones that start in downtown Detroit before the sun comes up.

Saturday was a busy day.  Taylor's sister and her boyfriend were here to visit, and Michigan was playing Michigan State in football (a big game).  The major challenge for us was that football game days require lots of walking, standing, and drinking (beer); all things one might normally avoid the day before a half marathon. We opted not to "avoid" so much as "limit" said activities.  We did walk to the game, but we sat down at the tailgate and didn't drink (too much) beer.  We found a place near the top of the stands at the game, where we could sit rather than just stand.  Here's Garett and I at the game:

It was a great game, including a last-second field goal to be Michigan State for the first time in 5 years!  Here's the crowd celebrating: 

After the game, we immediately headed back to our apartment, let Nashville out (he'd been in his crate 7 hours) and left to grab a pasta dinner before heading to our hotel in downtown Detroit.  We opted to stay downtown rather than get up before 4am to drive there and have to find parking in the morning.

Here's a blurry pic of the Renaissance Center in Detroit as we got into town Saturday night.  Taylor's office when he starts his job next year will be in this building!

Here's our lovely room at the Robert's Riverwalk Hotel

We had to request a rollaway bed for Garett since the hotel room I booked only had one bed (oops).  We went to bed pretty much immediately after it arrived seeing as it was 11pm and we had to be up at 5:30am for the race. 

In the morning, we each had our own routine of things to get ready:

Taylor with his ridiculous regimen of antacids, vitamins, decongestants and Dayquil:

Me with my very specific pre-race food requirements:

Garett standing shirtless...this is what he does.

We got to the start line very smoothly thanks to the shuttle offered by our hotel.  Here we are, all ready to go :)

So my official goal for the race was 1 hour and 50 minutes, which works out to 8:23 miles.  Taylor's goal was 1 hour and 30 minutes or 6:52 miles (insane, I know).  My brother was originally shooting to run with Taylor, but unfortunately, he got an IT Band injury during training and wasn't able to run as much as he needed, so his goal was just to finish.

We separated at the start line.  The boys went in Corral B and I went to Corral C (for Carissa, I think).  My corral was really full, so I actually stood outside it until the first group or runners started at 7am.  As people started to move up, I was able to move in.  I crossed the start line at 7:01:40am.  My intention was to use the timers that are always on the mile markers to keep track of my pace.  I find that doing math during the race really helps to distract me.  So with each mile, I would calculate whether I was ahead of or behind the average pace I needed to break my time and that would keep me going.

Fat chance.  Turns out that apparently Detroit decided these markers were unnecessary because I got to mile 1 and had NO IDEA how long my first mile had taken.  Rookie mistake, I had no watch at all so I couldn't even keep track of my own pace.  This was quite deflating. What was also deflating was the mile-long hill that was the ascent of the Ambassador Bridge. That's right.  For miles 1 and 2 I felt really good and was really enjoying the run.  Then came mile 3, where we climbed what seemed like 1,000 vertical feet up the Ambassador Bridge that links Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Despite the hill, the bridge was definitely a high point of the race.  The view over Detroit and Canada as the sun was coming up was really amazing.  The mile-long descent was also amazing.  It was, however, at that point that I realized I probably wasn't going to make my goal time, because the pace team for the marathon  time that worked out to double my half time (3:40:00 for those who are good at math) passed me.  Their pace, despite all my training, just felt way too fast for me.  Such a bummer too.  I had been fighting a cold/allergies/sinus issues for weeks, so I knew I would have to have a great day to make my goal and I did not.

Running through Canada was good.  You run right along the river and have a view of Detroit (oh, the beauty).  I was pretty impressed with the crowds considering it was before 8am!  I took my first PowerGel at mile 5.5 or so.  I opted for the Tangerine because it had caffeine and I was dragging.

At mile 6.5, we began our exit from Canada by heading away from the river and toward the entrance to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.  The tunnel was great, for the first half...the down half.  I felt like I was coasting and the sound of all the steps echoing around me was pretty cool.  Then came the climb back from underneath the Detroit River.  Not so fun.  It started gradually enough but like any truly grueling hill, it got steeper as it went!  By the end, I felt like I was climbing a staircase as I breezed (staggered) through Border Protection (take THAT, "what was the nature of your visit" man!).  I actually had to stop as soon as I got out of the tunnel to stretch my poor left hip flexor.  It did not know what had hit it.

Mile 9 was really cool because you come out of the tunnel in the middle of downtown Detroit and there are big crowds cheering.  It's quite fun.  If only I hadn't felt like death.  At this point, I seriously considered just letting my pace fall off to a slow shuffle.  Luckily, I was brought back from the brink just before mile 10 by none other than my brother!  Now, it wasn't a good thing that we were running into each other.  He's typically much faster than me so the fact that he was running my pace or slower meant something was very wrong.  And it was.  Apparently he felt find until about mile 7 and was running at a good pace and then his IT band said enough and that was that.  He still had the endurance to keep running, but it was excruciating.  Excruciating enough to run with little old me for the last 3 miles.

I'm a bit of a sap when it comes to running and I was so happy that Garett and I were going to finish the race together.  He stuck with me and I with him.  Around mile 12, we looked for our Uncle Steve whom we'd expected to see, but we missed him.  That was ok though, because now it was time for the homestretch.  We again headed into downtown, making one final right turn to see the finish line.  At this point, I still had no idea what my pace was, but I figured it wasn't good.  Garett gave me a pep talk and picked up his pace.  If he could do it, I could and I dug as deep as I could and finished strong.  The clock read 1:56:18 when I crossed the finish line.  The math I had waited the whole race to do somehow failed me but I was able to determine this was probably my second fastest time.  Not what I had hoped for, but not bad!

Here are some photos of all of us during the race.  Sorry for the low-res and watermark...I snagged them from the race site:

Garett and I together toward the end.

 Love the bridge in the background

  Ouch, ouch ouch!

Cheer for me!

Taylor was waiting for us at the finish line an it turned out he had done very well!  He ran the race in 1:32:15, or about 7:04 miles.  Insane!  He used a pacer and said that it really helped him.

Here's a photo of all of us at the finish.  I would TOTALLY buy this one if a download didn't coast $24.99.  SERIOUSLY?!

We grabbed some snacks, stretched, got our bags, and went to find Uncle Steve.  It turned out that we hadn't planned very well and had no idea how we were going to get back to our hotel.  Garett was limping horribly and taxis were impossible to find.  Not to mention most roads were closed anyway.  So meeting up with Uncle Steve for breakfast while the race cleared out was the perfect plan.  Here's a picture he took of the three of us just after we finished (medals donned):

And here are Garett and I with Uncle Steve:

We spotted an ancient little diner nearby (the place seriously hadn't been painted nor the tablecloths (featured below) changed in probably 35 years.  No matter, the french toast, sausage and coffee were delicious and all 4 of us ate our fill for less than $20!

After breakfast it took us a solid 45 minutes to finagle our way around, under, over and eventually through the actual race course and to our hotel.  And still, the poor souls running the full marathon were making their way to the finish line in front of our hotel:

I was so relieved not to be running the full marathon that day and very proud, along with my husband and brother, to officially be a:

So there it is, my 12th half marathon - Complete!

Here's the medal, pretty sweet!

It must be love (but hopefully not for me)

It has been way too long since I blogged!  I'm sorry for the delay!  September was a busy month with Taylor going back to school and my work picking up heading into the last quarter of the year.  However, I have been making time this past month for my newest passion: Tennis!

Back in July, Taylor and I decided one day to play some tennis, just for fun.  Well, turns out it was A LOT of fun!  From then on, all I wanted to do was play tennis!  We played almost every single day in August, including when we were out of town.  I would literally google tennis courts in the area to make sure I could play!  We played on clay courts on the shores of Lake Michigan, hard courts in Holland, Michigan, and out in Estes Park Colorado overlooking the Rocky Mountains.

I wouldn't say I have a natural skill in tennis, but I've really enjoyed working toward being better.  My forehand was pretty good right off the back, but I had to work A LOT on my backhand.  Initially, it would literally fly all over the place and almost never land in the lines.  My serve has slowly evolved to where it's not great, but it is acceptable and quite consistent.  After playing with Taylor for about 2 months, I was ready to try playing some other people.  I started just playing with a couple of friends.  Sometimes I was the better player, other times they were.  I loved playing with friends, but I found it hard to be competitive with them, so I decided to look into local leagues or ways to find opponents.  My Aunt Shari is an avid tennis player, and she suggested we join the USTA, which I did.  I'm a card-carrying member, see!

Aunt Shari mentioned that she had played in this thing called a Flex League in Florida.  Flex Leagues are where you basically are assigned to opponents online and you play with them on your own time.  I was pumped, so I looked to see if they had one in Ann Arbor and it turns out they do!!

It also turns out there was one starting THAT WEEK, so I joined!  So far, I've played two matches and I am 1-1.  The first match was a come-from-behind victory and I was really proud of it.  The second one was just a hard match.  She was better than me, and I was tired, so it did not end in my favor.  My Aunt Shari joined the league too, and we are playing our match this Saturday while we're up north for my cousin's wedding.  We'll see how it goes!

Oh and in case you're wondering what the title of this blog post means.  In tennis, when you have 0 points, your score is referred to as "love." So basically, I LOVE tennis, but I don't want my score to be LOVE.  Get it?  :)

And now here I am, debating between running and playing tennis tonight with Taylor.  I would really prefer to play tennis, but we are also running a half marathon in 2 weeks and I have to get ready.  Decisions, decisions...

Oh, one last thing.  I'm also thinking that Tennis will help me complete my "take a class in something that interests me" from my 30 before 30.  Stay tuned!

30 Before 30: Buy myself an expensive piece of jewelry

Last Week, Taylor and I spent 5 days in Estes Park, Colorado with his parents.  They spend several months each summer out there and it is such a treat to get to go.  We had a great time and in the process, I was able to check a 30 Before 30 off my list!  Here's a recap.

View from Taylor's parents place:

We got there on Wednesday night and stopped for dinner at a Thai place in Boulder.  It was delicious, but I ate WAY too much!  Thursday to be honest, I can't really remember what we did besides play a little tennis (my newest obsession) on these courts.  Check out the BEAUTIFUL view!

 

Friday was Taylor's Mom's birthday, so we took a hike:

After the hike, we had to run in to town to mail something for Taylor's mom and on the way in, we noticed that the road back to their house was closed.  We asked a cop and he said there had been a fatal accident further up the road and that we would need to hang out in Estes Park for a while.  That didn't seem so bad, and we were past the point of turning back, so we headed in to town, went to the post office, and decided our next step would be to stop in at the Estes Park Brewery.  Now, Estes Park is not known for its craft beer, and in the 10 years that it's been there, no one in Taylor's family had gone, so our expectations were not high, and it's a good thing!  The beer was decent and they offer 4 free samples when you walk in, so we can't really complain, but unfortunately, the entire atmosphere of the place was just dank, and Taylor has decided in his next live, he will buy the Estes Park Brewery and will turn it into something more like the awesome craft beer places in Michigan!  Sounds fun!

Anyway, we dawdled a little more and then were able to sweet talk our way back up the road on account of the fact that we were only going about 2 miles when the accident was about 20 miles up the road.

Later that night, we went out to dinner at Lake Mary's Lodge, which was absolutely beautiful, delicious, and fun on account of the fact that there were several rehearsal dinners and even a wedding going on while we were there.

We came home and had cake and wine and Mary Elizabeth opened her presents: A rice cooker from Taylor's older brother Alex, a Camelback and an iron skillet from his dad, and some Toms shoes from us, which she proudly sported in an almost-matching-outfit to mine a couple nights later:

On Saturday, we got up early and took a tram ride up a mountain and did a little hiking, where i was greeted by a clearly-well-socialized ground squirrel:

Then we headed back to the house, where my good friend Laura and her husband came out to stay the night.  Taylor and Michael hiked the 14,000 foot mountain in Estes Park, Longs Peak, on Saturday night/Sunday morning, so they came out Saturday afternoon to get ready.  They brought their 1-year-old son Andrew, and we had a lot of fun playing with him.

We had a spaghetti dinner (gotta carbo load before the 15-mile hike!) and the boys turned in around 9pm because they had to get up at 2:30am (you read that right) in order to be on the trail by 4am.  Basically, when hiking Longs Peak, you have to get up by 10 or 11 so that you can get down by mid-afternoon and avoid the thunderstorms that swirl around the summit daily.

It turned out that 3 of Michael's friends had also decided to do the climb, so we swung by to pick them up on our way to the trailhead (I drove them, but did not climb).  They were a teensy weensy bit un-prepared in taht they were wearing shorts, had very little water, and seemed like they had been out partying the night before.  I wasn't sure they'd make it!  Here's a group photo before the start.

 After the hike started, I didn't really hear from them again for most of the day, but Taylor did take some good photos:

Apparently there was a detout to this beautiful lake:

 Marmot:

Unfortunately, they could not summit the mountain due to 1) the aforementioned unprepared hikers and 2) the fact that Taylor was sick!  Too bad, because it was a perfect day, but now we have an excuse to go back and hopefully I can join them!

While the boys were hiking Longs Peak, Laura and I went for a nice hike with Andrew at Lily Lake:



Sunday night we went to a delicious Nepalese place in Estes Park and then went shopping and bought Taylor a Longs Peak shirt.   We also came across this image on a T-shirt, which appears to show Nashville driving home a drunk cowboy:

 Seriously, that dog looks so much like Nash!

On Monday, we did our traditional drive up to the Alpine Visitor Center, which is in Rocky National Park at 12,000 feet.  It's a beautiful drive where you always see elk and sometimes even a moose!

We decided to take an old, dirt road instead of the usual Trail Ridge Road up the mountain.  It was very fun, but I was so scared the whole time that we would go tumbling (in our car) over a rocky outcropping.  Ridiculous, I know, but Taylor's parents car is a huge Ford Expedition and you can't see the ground outside the vehicle sometimes, so it's scary!

Here I am shooting a Nike commercial on the mountain:


And here's where we finally get to the 30 Before 30 part.  In the Alpine Visitor's Center, there's a gift shop full of touristy stuff, but then they also have this one section of nice jewelry either made in the park or by local Native Americans.  It's mostly silver, turquoise, etc.  I had been keeping my eye out for a turquoise necklace, and I know you can get them relatively cheap, but I figured if they had a nice one there, maybe I would spring for it.

So, I looked around and didn't really see anything, ignoring a more rag-tag cabinet off to the right. When I had looked at pretty much everything else, I walked over to the cabinet I had been ignoring.  The reason it looked so random was because it was full of pawned jewelry.  At first I didn't see anything I liked, but after a minute I zeroed in on a shorter turquoise necklace and asked to take it out.  As soon as I held it, I knew I wanted it.  You could tell it was high quality, and it had a magnetic closure, which makes it really easy to wear.  Here's a photo of the necklace and the info about pawn jewelry:

So that was it!  I wanted it!  I bought it!  It was "expensive" by my standards, though by no means exorbitant.  I really like it.  So much so taht I went outside and immediately modeled it for Taylor over the mountains:

Monday night was our last night in Estes Park.  We watched a beautiful sunset before packing up to leave.  Until next time!