7 Things

Happy Monday! I’m on week 2 of my fun-employment and can’t believe how fast time has gone. I begin my new full-time RN position next week and cannot be more excited. Almost as excited/ nervous as I was when I had my first banana split this summer.

The foliage here right now is just the best. I love Fall in New England.

I took a break from listening to Running podcasts while I was studying for my Nursing Boards and now it feels so nice to catch back up on my favorites. Also- just running right now feels pretty great. I ran 41 miles this week and hoping to hit another 40+ this week!

Coffee and a good book in the mornings is one of my favorite things. If I had like 5 hours each morning I think it would always be filled with coffee, reading, journaling, yoga, & Running. What would you do with an in-interrupted 5 hours each morning?

Running Home is such a good book so far. There are many passages that resonate with me and why I run. Including this one:

I’m definitely a competitive person and miss those in-person races! I signed up for one next month, but then realized that I work until 7:30 the morning of the race (so that certainly won’t work). I love the thrill of chasing others and those post-race endorphins. The virtual 5k that I did this weekend was fun, but I have a really hard time running really fast on my own!

When they cuddle like this, my heart just melts into a million pieces. I mean- how can you not think that’s adorable?!

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• How was your weekend?

• Anyone else miss racing in-person or have advice for pushing yourself in virtual races?

• Banana splits- tell me your thoughts!

7 Things

Happy Monday! I’m in denial that it’s no longer the weekend and still wish that we were at the Basin like we were on Labor Day. Why can’t it just be long weekends every week?!?

I remember having jobs when I first got out of college where I was so spoiled and had EVERY Friday off. I really need to make that a priority again in the future. We also went camping Labor Day night (perks of both working from home right now- we don’t need to start work until 9am so we have the flexibility of going places on work nights)!

This was the first-time camping without Stella and it was really sad. She loved camping more than anything and she was definitely missed. We did get up extra early to catch the sunrise before heading home and that was so nice. Especially with a side of fresh brewed coffee.

It’s just been a whole lotta studying for my nursing boards around here lately. I learned so much information the past 15 months and if I think about how much I still have to learn-> it definitely gets my heart rate going! I’m trying to just stay focused and utilize my review platforms and stick to my study schedule.

We kicked off the weekend with our first APPLE PICKING of the season! I love love love being able to go apple picking again after not having any options when we were in Colorado. First sign of Fall for me = apple orchards opening.

So ofcourse I then had to go out and decorate our home with all. the.fall.things and pick-up some Mums to plant. It’s the little things like decorating for each season that brings me SO MUCH JOY. Anyone else feel this way?

Also running has started to pick-up for me again lately. I hit a burn-out spot this summer (especially with crazy school hours/ clinical hours/ working), but finally starting to hit my stride. 8 miles on Sunday and 9 miles on the bike for a nice little Sunday Funday workout. I’m in the midst of a 5k training plan (virtual race is the beginning of October) and thinking about maybe signing up for an in-person race in November (with all the precautions, of-course). Anyone else getting the itch to race in a safe environment?!

I also broke-out all of my Fall/Winter gear (including my bulky sweaters and mittens), so I am prepared. Also tried to pack Brady away, but Alex talked me out of it…

At least we have this little cutie to balance the other naughty one out. Thankful for the cats to help us work-through losing Stella. They are certainly getting extremely spoiled now.

7 Things

I’m back again for what seems like my monthly posting! I have less than 3 weeks left of classes, so hoping to make my blog posts more regular again. Life has been completely crazy this past month with my nursing senior practicum at the hospital (night shifts!), but I finished my last one this morning. Cheers to no longer having to look like a smurf & maybe a week without mask-ne (the masks we have to wear during our 12 hour shift causes me to break out in crazy acne)

We’ve been biking together so much lately & I love it. It’s amazing how much farther you can get when you’ve got two wheels!

We ate-out for the first time since the pandemic started & it was so nice! We wore masks to our table (we ate at the Old Saco Inn) & then took them off. The Chicken Piccata was amazing (& leftovers just as good)!

Every time I feel like I’m heat-acclimated, I run in crazy humid weather and become very humbled. I know running this Fall will so good once those cooler temperatures come.

We took the kayaks out last week and it’s so nice being out on the water after dinner. It’s quieter on the water and so serene.

It’s funny when this is actually your “nights “ sleep (when I have back-to-back night shifts I sleep during the daytime)

Really enjoying splurging on coffee Oreo ice cream lately. So so good. Maybe my favorite flavor?

Just a daily dose of Manx kitty cuteness.

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-What’s your favorite Ice Cream flavor?
-How much sleep do you get each night?
-Biking or running- tell me your favorite way to get around

7 Things

We’re still working through the donut-shaped birthday cake. Still not sick of it.

We celebrated my Birthday on Friday night since I worked until 10pm on Thursday (my original Birthday). We got all dressed up in what-would-have-been our Wedding Rehearsal dinner outfits and picked up Italian take-out from the BEST restaurant (Vito’s in North Conway if anyone ever goes there-amazing). Ate it while playing Italian playlist on Amazon Music and a glass of wine. Also- split the cannoli and tiramisu for dessert. So so good. Also it just felt really good to ‘put on real clothes’ even if we were just going to be in the car!

We’ve been keeping a few extra boxes out on the porch for the cats and apparently Maple approves? e

I have finals next week so did mostly studying this past weekend and making up a bunch of notecards. One of my classes has over 250 slides for a non-cumulative last exam= a whole lotta notecards.

We also picked up a bunch of paint to do our living room, kitchen, and bathroom (& maybe laundry room). We’ve been putting off getting paint for weeks now, but I got to Lowe’s basically right as they opened on Sunday morning and was the first in line (so not as bad as we were originally thinking)! We’ve also been doing a grocery run every 2 weeks so it’s been nice to know that we don’t have to go this week.

Alex got two of our garden boxes put together and I think they look great. Woodworking definitely is not my area of expertise so I’m thankful that he’s able to do these! Can’t wait for fresh veggies in a few months.

I had one of the best long runs I’ve had in a while yesterday. It was pouring rain, windy, and 37*, but it was awesome. I ran on the bike path so I wouldn’t have to deal with any cars (it’s also flatter) and did: 3 mile warm-up/ 3 miles @ 7:45 (7:46 actual)/ 3 miles @ 7:30 (7:33 actual)/ 3 miles down. Also started a new round of strength exercises yesterday and figured out my route that I’m going to be running my 26.2 mile run next month which is exciting!

Typical, Very Excited, Currently Doing This A lot

It’s raining here and wow, do I love the sound of the rain on the tin roof. It’s probably one of my favorite sounds. That and a good coffeehouse playlist on Spotify really help get me motivated to get some work done. It’s actually pretty hilarious how little I’ve blogged since starting school and especially since this quarantine. I keep saying that I want to make regular appearances on here again and then….IDK. I find lack of motivation? lack of inspiration? other priorities? All of the above maybe. I started to create a schedule for myself today and honestly I’ve been the most productive today than I’ve been since this whole craziness started. Dare I say that maybe I’ve found my ‘secret sauce’?!? I just ordered my 100 miler sweatshirt and they’re shipping it to me so yay for something to look forward to! The sweatshirts are extra that you can purchase and all the proceeds go towards helping them upgrade their equipment (last year they did hats and ordered an Atrial Defibrillator for the race, which I think is so awesome). I also just forgot how to add photos to my post, so I guess that’s where we are on blogging level again.

I’m starting a ‘mini-taper’ before my ‘Sugarloaf Marathon’ at-home edition. I ran 16 miles yesterday and the middle miles were supposed to be at tempo pace, but they were a bit slower than I would’ve liked. Still happy to be training and giving it my best. Some days just are not great and you just need to accept it and move on.

I guess this is typical attire at work now. Wearing masks for an entire 8.5 hour shift with just 30 minutes to take a break (for meals) is really challenging. I get super hot in them and my face is definitely breaking out all over the place because of them. Such fun times. At least we’re protecting our patients though.

We’ve been baking up a storm over here and these Vegan Brownie cookies (recipe on Pinterest) were AMAZING. Like, devoured in 3 days. Ha.

Saw this playlist and thinking that we will definitely need one of these songs for our Wedding dance- right?

I’m very excited to be back running on our Rail Trail! I ran there last week early and was the only one on it. Can’t wait to take my bike on it again!

I’ve been doing a lot of wine and reading lately. Which I typically never finish a glass of wine (neither does Alex), so really just mainly doing a lot of reading for fun lately. It’s been SO nice!

It’s also been so nice to be getting out more with Alex and just going for walks or hikes or hanging out together more. Anyone else finding that they’re spending more quality time together with their significant other?

9 days left of my Spring Semester and then 3 finals. I cannot believe I’ll be done in AUGUST!

View from this mornings run before the rain came in. It WAS beautiful out. I just love running in 30-degree morning weather- anyone else??

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-Favorite kind of weather to run in?

-What have you been doing with your extra ‘down time’ lately? We’ve been doing a mix of household projects, reading, lounging, and getting some extra sleep

-Are you a ‘schedule’ type of person or not so much?