Weekend Recap

This weekend we decided to take advantage of the cool weather and get out of the house!  We had grand plans to go to the National Zoo, take pictures in front of the White House, and see the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives.  We took the metro into the city because driving and parking is a pain.

However, once we got to D.C. I realized that it was colder there than at our house and I had not dressed warmly enough, so we had to stop and get me a jacket from Loft.  James says I planned the whole thing since Loft is my favorite store and he's partly right - I did actually look up where the nearest Loft to the zoo was just in case we happened to have some extra time, but I did not try to underdress on purpose!

After grabbing some lunch and walking around a lot, we finally found the store, but that little stop took up about an hour, and by the time we made it to the zoo, we were already getting sore feet and it was the afternoon.  We didn't make it to our other two planned stops, but that's ok!  We had fun at the zoo.

The pandas were the highlight since neither one of us had ever seen a panda in real life before.  They are so furry and cuddly looking that they could be giant stuffed animals, and they really do sit on their behinds like the pictures show.  I could just picture them sitting on the couch eating potato chips and watching TV.

We also saw anteaters...they are so funny looking.

And this funny gorilla and his antics made us laugh.

After the zoo, all of our walking around the city, and going down the longest, steepest staircases you've ever seen to get to the metro, we both had aching feet and legs - I am still sore enough two days later that I can't run today!  But it was fun and I think it is so cool that we can go to D.C. any time we want.  And most of the things there are free!

Unfortunately, today is Monday and James went back to work, so today is clean the house day for me!  I have no idea how two people can create such a mess in such a short period of time.  So, time for me to crank up the music and get my clean on.  Maybe I'll throw some periodic jumping jacks in there and call it my exercise for the day since I'm too sore to run...:-)

New jewelry storage

Yesterday I said that I had a little project in the works - a jewelry storage system!  This was how I was storing my jewelry:

My necklaces were all jumbled together in this box:

It was definitely not working for me.  In our old apartment, I had my earrings in those little drawer organizers and my necklaces hung on the wall in the closet.  It wasn't the prettiest system, but it worked and nobody had to see it.  However, this apartment has no hidden space for me to do the same, so I had to do something different.

Here is the finished product:

 Much better!  And a closeup:

I love it!  I love that it's girly and pretty and I can hang it on the wall in the bedroom and not have to hide it!  Plus, it was a fun craft project.  I'm definitely not crafty enough to have come up with this on my own, so I followed this tutorial from Live a Little Wilder.  I thought about spray painting the frame, but decided to keep it clean and white.  The fun thing about this is that you can personalize it however you want!  You can make the flowers out of any color fabric and spray paint the frame.  There are even different colors of burlap.

Here's the cost breakdown:

White frame from Michael's, half off: $8.99
Burlap from Joann's: $3.99 a yard.  I bought a whole yard but at most I used about 1/8 of it, so that would be about 50 cents.  I have an idea about what to do with the rest of the burlap so that it won't be wasted.
Fabric, felt, and sequins for the flowers: about $6, and I have leftovers of all of them.
Ribbon to hang it: $3 for the whole roll and of course I used a very small piece.
Six white hooks from Lowe's: $2.63

Total: $21.12

I also had to buy a glue gun for this project, but I didn't include it in the cost because i can use it over and over again.  If you already have ribbon, or an old picture frame to repurpose, this project would be even cheaper!

And there you have an easy, fun, and super cute personalized jewelry organizer!

C25K Week 1 Day 2

Woohoo!  I won't blog every time I run, I promise.  But I am excited because I finished Day 2 and it was EASIER THAN DAY 1!!  Given the fact that yesterday my back and legs were super sore, I thought surely today would be harder.  But I was less tired at the end, and my shins don't hurt today!  And so far I haven't gotten a single side stich or ichy legs (my usual side effects of running/walking fast)!  It may be a small thing, but for me it's a big accomplishment.  Here are the stats:

Distance: 1.69 miles
Calories burned: 173

Also, I have a craft that I am in the middle of making to help me store my jewelry.  I will post pictures of it when I am done.

Have a great Wednesday!

An introduction to running: Couch to 5K Week 1, Day 1

"Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  Hebrews 12: 1b-2

Today I took a leap and started my journey to be a jogger.  I know, you're probably laughing right now, even I think it's ridiculous.  Because I DON'T RUN.  Like, ever.  If a wild animal was ever chasing me, my strategy would probably be to fall down and play dead.  It would have a greater chance of success than me running away.

But I did it anyway.  I'm really making it a major goal of this season of my life to get in better shape.  Not only to get a better shape (I'll admit, that's a big part of it) but also because regular exercise has many health benefits.  I have the time now to make exercise a priority, and so I am, because I'll probably never get this chance again to form the habit.

That being said, this is going to be hard. 

I've been walking a mile three times a week for the past 2 weeks in preparation, because I knew that just jumping into running without easing myself into it would be a bad idea.  And even still it was difficult.

Week 1 of the Couch to 5K program has the person alternate 60 seconds of running with 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes, with a 5 minute walk for warmup and cooldown.  That doesn't sound too hard right?  I was able to complete the whole workout but I was pretty wiped by the end.  And I'm pretty sure I'm the slowest jogger on the planet.  Also, my shins hurt.  Already.  Isn't that something that seasoned, hardcore runners are supposed to get?

If this program can actually get me to run a 5K straight through in less than 5 hours, it will be a real live miracle.  I prayed before I started that I wouldn't give up, and the verse above popped into my mind.  "Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus..."  I've always loved that verse, won't it be cool to apply it to actual running?  Well ok then, I guess I'm going to do this thing!

Our new apartment

I know that you guys want to see what our apartment looks like, so I took some photos.  We haven't hung any pictures on the wall and the I'm not terribly fond of the furniture arrangement in the living room, so things will change, but for now this is how it is.

I am not fond of the black countertops.  They show every little drop of water and look dirty very easily...which surprises me because I would think the dark color would hide blemishes, but not so.  However, this kitchen has a bit more storage space than my last kitchen, and there is an adjoining laundry room (I was standing in it to take this picture), so I will forgive the ugly counters.

If you look to the right when you walk in the door, you see the living room.  It's been hard to find a good furniture configuration that both of us like, so it's here for now.

There is actually a separate dining area behind the living room in this apartment and I like it, especially the view from the balcony.

From the dining area there's this little media nook where we put our desk.  Not sure if that bookshelf will stay there or move somewhere else.

Then there are two bedrooms and two bathrooms in the back, one of which has no furniture and the other of which is too cluttered at the moment for me to take a picture.  :-)

So that's our apartment!  We like it.  I can't wait to have a house though that I can paint and really make our own, but for now, we're pretty happy with what we've got.

Time to go make dinner, chicken cordon bleu is calling my name!

Pictures from the air show

On Sunday we went to the air show at the base to see the Blue Angels!  They were really neat; I didn't expect to like them so much, but it is amazing what they can do.  Ten percent of the pilots have died since the shows began - it is dangerous to fly 18 inches from the plane next to you!  But very cool to watch.

Pictures from the trip

Happy Labor Day!  Here are some pictures of our road trip to MD.  We went through 8 states, including Texas and Maryland. I enjoyed getting to see the terrain along the way since we usually fly. 

 We drove through a big storm in Louisiana and I thought the sky looked really ominous. Also, LA looked a lot like TX until we got to the swampy part.

Then it was on to Mississippi, where we stayed the night.

Alabama was next.

We went through a tiny tip of Georgia and then onto Tennessee.

We spent most of the third day in Virginia, which was my favorite state although I was getting tired of being in the car by then.  Virginia is beautiful, especially in the Blue Ridge Mountains!

Sadly my camera died right before we got to Maryland so I have no picture of the state sign.