the dad, ABQ, & misc.

i have a goal this week. to get all caught up! AND to work out at least four times. i had a talk with Chris recently letting him know it was important to me to get in a "normal" workout week. because really i haven't had a "normal" week since Chris entered into my life, and he knows the importance behind my workout schedule. now granted, a normal week is actually five workouts, and i will try for that, but my personal goal is four. i let Chris know that once we have this normal week behind us, we can see how it effects "us" and adjust accordingly. so we'll see.
now more catch up talk.
two weeks ago Chris' dad was in town for a week to spend time with his son and time on the golf course. i met up with them a handful of times and i was nervous. going to meet the dad, is a big deal. and of course i was late for our first greeting. i felt horrible, and should have planned better for driving downtown on a sunday.
after the initial hello, i realized that i get along much better with mom's than i do dad's, just because of my own personal relationship. but getting to know his dad was easy. Chris and his dad are a lot a like. very funny, sarcastic, and witty. needless to say Chris' dad is the opposite of my dad. he talked with me, and showed me his warm personality, which helped me to open up.

Chris and his dad, Marty ~ Rockies game 7/20/11

the week was great. i got to see Chris while getting to know his dad, and see their son and father relationship. during our final good-bye Marty invited me to visit Nebraska whenever i wanted.

********

last weekend i was in Albuquerque to visit my dad who is currently recovering from having his left hip replaced. the visit was short, i flew in friday morning and left sunday morning. overall the visit was good. i got to visit with my parents and see a couple of friends including my cousin Kari.
my return last sunday was full of surprises, which i will treasure for the rest of my life. i honestly can't decide what i want to share on my blog, if anything at all. so for now i'll leave it at that.

******

this past week as been a great one. i've spent lots of time with Chris and we've made some big decisions, and a close friend of mine had a baby. so very busy, and emotional. all of it very very good. more to come...

master step 60min

an introduction

Ugh! Talk about getting behind. I have the past two weeks to write about and everything in between. In general I feel so overwhelmed and it is important for me to document it all because I honestly don’t want to forget a thing! But first I’m going to cover some basics.

Let me introduce you to Chris…

Chris is my boyfriend.

As simple as I want to make this (as Chris would say KISS it {Keep It Simple Stupid}) for me this is a big deal. He realizes this, and knows that it’s important for me to get this out there. Rather than continue by calling him by C. (Or sea as my Uncle John says.) As Chris would say he isn’t going anywhere (he usually needs to reassure me daily, although I am getting better), so I am putting it out there for the world to see. Not that I haven’t hinted at it in past posts, or taken the word “single” out of my heading. Let the truth be known that I have a boyfriend and that I am somebody’s girlfriend.

Everything is so so great. And it’s important for me to take the time and recognize that. I truly appreciate Chris. Everything that he is, and everything that he has already given me in the short time we’ve been together. I feel as though he’s truly been there by my side since we met on May 21^st. He has been part of my everyday life since, and even though I know my life was great before I met him, I truly feel like I can’t remember my life without him.

Chris has brought a world of emotion into my life, all of it good. It’s a strange feeling always wanting it, but never thinking it would happen, but always hoping that it would. How I’ve always pictured this time in my life, MY TIME, as this wonderful feeling. Imagining all it could be. But what I’ve been given is so.much.more.

I’m left in awe and wonderment of it all.

So much more, that I often question it. I let my emotions get the best of me, rather than just accepting it. That YES, this is my life. That yes I am worth it, that I need to stop questioning if I deserve all of this. Because often that is what I do. And that is draining for both myself, and Chris.

I've been surprised and shocked by this guy. So many great things that have happened, are happening, and what I hope will happen. I feel so lucky and fortunate to feel the way that I feel. I'm looking forward to this moment right now, and relishing in the feeling of love.

treadmill 50min

on being alone

Please know that I realize every person is different, every relationship is different, every marriage is between two people and is different. I get that I do. Each situation is different and the people involved are unique to themselves. I get that I do. With all that said realize that my writings are unique to myself and are the opinion of only myself. I don’t expect you to believe what I think, but to be open minded in what I do believe.

Ok, now that the fine print is out of the way: I believe in order to be happy with someone you have to be happy with yourself. I’ve known people who put all of their happiness into the person that they are with. Which sure, that is great and all. But someone else’s happiness won’t make you happy, not in the long run anyways. This comes out of me from the news of Jennifer Lopez’s and Marc Anthony’s marriage ending in divorce. And maybe I feel this way because I’m a little bit jealous that I’ve never been one of these people, but let’s look at Jennifer Lopez and question why it is that a relationship of hers has never lasted. In my opinion it is because she has never been alone. She’s been in back to back relationships for what seems like her whole life. It may be silly to bring up a Hollywood breakup to make this point, but honestly I've always felt this way about Jennifer Lopez. Whenever one of her relationships would end I would always say to myself "Good, now she can be alone, get to know herself before starting another serious relationship." But then, before long she would be in another serious relationship. Now I get the idea of falling in love fast, and falling in love hard especially when it is new and the feelings are so exciting and full of butterfly’s. But if you just jump from one person to the next how do you know you?, and how will that person who is trying to get to know you truly get to know the real you? When you haven’t been with just you. Does that make sense? Let me try to explain. I think that when you start a relationship with someone a part of you grows into the part of actually being a couple from the separate you. But the part that grows is new, for most part it shouldn’t be pre-existing. It should sprout and grow as the relationship sprouts and grows. If for whatever reason the relationship ends then that part needs to heal and essentially disappear. You need to learn and slowly process going back to yourself before this part grew from you. You need to get to know yourself again without that person and without another person. You need to be by yourself. I think that if you go from one person to the next you are doing yourself (and the new person) a disservice. You aren’t getting to know you, so truly how can this new person get to know you? I’ve been single majority of my life. The times that I’ve been single and either newly broken-up or just in longing to be with someone, was time to myself. Time for me to get to know me, time to grieve over my broken heart, time for me to become truly happy with being single, appreciating my time, and then accepting and being happy with the possibility that my happiness might just be in always being alone and building my life from there. I myself have dealt with all of the above.

I honestly was happy and had a good life before C entered the picture, but now that he is in the picture I feel that much more blessed to have him in my life and to share my happiness with. I truly believe that he is getting to know me and I am getting to know him. That we appreciated the time that we were single prior to meeting and because we had that time we now appreciate each other that much more.

I suppose my point is that in the big picture there is nothing wrong with being alone. That I grew a lot during my time alone. I understand that nobody probably wants to be alone, but that for some (me) it is a reality to have to face. I also understand that some people just can’t be alone, and that is why they jump from one emotional situation to another. Sometimes I wish that I could have been that person who didn’t have to deal with being alone, because I definitely think that is an easy way to go through life. But truly getting to know me, what I want, and how to live my life has helped me tremendously become who it is that I am today. And I think C truly appreciates that, and because of that I am truly thankful. Especially now that I am in a relationship, I can whole-heartedly by my true self with C and take comfort in the fact that he is getting to know me.

on a carriage ride in downtown denver 7/17/11

treadmill 30min

a new category

along with me i feel like my blog is always changing. two years ago i used to write about going to the grocery store just to get out of the house on the weekends to talk to the person behind on the register. now my weekends are always fun filled creating new memories with my friends going out doing something new, and now more recently with my relationship with C. so here's a new label i'm adding: weekend rundown.
i feel as though i still have some catching up to do, so here were the happenings from the past two weekends.
saturday 7/9 C and i went to a wedding reception for a co-worker of mine. afterwords we went to a work get together with a bunch of C's co-workers. it was great to meet some people in his "circle" and be included into another part of his life.

@ the wedding reception

on sunday 7/10 we started the day at syrup a fabulous breakfast place in cherry creek north. i highly recommend it! we then headed to the denver museum of nature and science.

spectacular view of downtown denver

i think we are pretty cute!

we specifically went to this museum to check out the pirate exhibit. it was very cool.

C posing with a pirate.

saturday 7/16 C and i ventured down to colorado springs to visit the cheyenne mountain zoo. i had heard splendid things about this zoo, and after living in denver for 9 years i have finally checked it out!
the very first thing you see when you enter this zoo are the giraffe's! get this...you can feed them and touch them. they are right there!

C and his new buddy

we saw:

giraffe's

bear's

bird's

more bear's

a moose and turkey's

C and i on the tram ride

@ the top with CO springs in the background

colorado springs

hippo's

after the zoo we walked around old colorado city and manitou springs. both area's have a plaza feel like in santa fe. it was super nice.
i truly enjoy my one on one time with C. things can definitely get overwhelming and we have a busy few months ahead, but getting away doing things just the two of us is an experience in and of itself.

core 30min
elliptical 40min

~something i love~

their are so many things i love about being on the current journey that i'm on. i've lived in my house for five plus years and i'm pretty sure the last time i enjoyed my backyard patio was probably some time in 2007 with my parents.
a few weeks ago C suggested we have dinner outside. i thought it was a great idea, and loved that i was able to enjoy a meal outside with him. since then we've had a few more meals out there, and it's great. their is no noise besides our conversation and all the time in the world to relax and enjoy our meals.
i love sitting back and drinking a glass of wine and just being. and just being with him. it is so relaxing and having C there makes the experience that much better, because truth be told if C wasn't in my life, my patio would still be vacant.

50/50 60min

Shifting

Things in my life are changing. They have been changing for awhile now. Over the past two years I’ve changed emotionally, mentally, physically. I’ve gotten new friends, my job duties have changed countless times, I’ve changed my hair, I’ve changed how it is that I live my life. My whole atmosphere has changed. Besides my house, my car, and my two cats just about all other aspects of my life have changed. More recently I’m shifting my priorities. My focus is no longer solely on the gym and working out, although granted it isn’t far behind on my list of priorities, this is just…Life. It is such a crazy thing how life brings such changes over time. Of course there is a huge difference when you are the one to progress those changes, compared to the unexpected changes that you aren’t prepared for. I have often hoped that the natural progression of my life and the changes I’ve done over the past couple of years would lead me to what it is that I now have. How it seems that just.like.that. I have everything that I have ever wanted. Now of course, I am being a bit dramatic, but that’s just part of who I am. And no, I don’t truly have everything I have ever wanted, but I do feel that a big stepping stone has been fulfilled for me to be perfectly content.

My main focus right now is a new relationship. Building and growing, getting to know. Not only him, but me. Slowly allowing myself to be this person, because truly this person is so foreign. The last time I was this person was 5 and half years ago. Getting to know the April that is involved in a relationship. Being part of a “couple”. Having thoughts of us occupy my time, trying not to get ahead of myself. Enjoying the experience of sharing myself and someone sharing himself with me. I have to say that it is great, and weird, and the power to be truly life changing.

This truly does seem to be the natural progression of where my life was taking me. Of course, I say this now because this is where I wanted it to go. Did I doubt that it wouldn't happen? Absolutely. Just because you want something doesn't mean you are going to get it. All of it is so surprising and I'm soaking it in. Truly appreciating the new joy and happiness that has entered my life so suddenly...but then at the same time I feel like it couldn't have gotten here a helluva a lot sooner!!!

Yes, things are shifting, things are changing, and this fabulous person is getting some time of mine that would have normally been spent at the gym. And right now, I'm ok with that.
treadmill 35min

legs

RI pictures

i know i know...it took long enough, but they are finally up.
pictures from my trip to Rhode Island! enjoy.

arrival: Katherine and I

Katherine getting ready for swim lessons

day at the beach.
didn't you know my God daughter is a model?!

super cool sand castle

Josh and Katherine

WaterFire in downtown Providence

Southwick's Zoo in Mendon, MA

bounce house fun on the 4th

followed by fun in the pool

sailboat ride off of Newport

classic beach pic

riding bikes

core 30min
treadmill 30min

an American girl

gotta love an American classic from an all American girl!

triple cardio 60min

bullet point vacation

late wednesday night i got back from my annual trip to Rhode Island. i had a good time hanging out with my aunt, uncle, cousin, and her two kiddo's which includes my beautiful God Daughter. i'll eventually get around to some details and pictures (of course) but here is the rundown.

Saturday July 2nd

• Swimming lessons


• Day at the beach

Sunday July 3rd

• Southwick's Zoo


• Bad Teacher


• Water Fire

Monday July 4th

• Run/jog


• Cookout


• Katherine's first viewing of fireworks

Tuesday July 5th

• Run/jog


• Pedicure


• Newport sailboat ride

Wednesday July 6th

• Nap


• Late flight's

7/5/11

jog/walk 40min

just random

i've been procrastinating writing my posts from my two workouts on vacation this past week. i'm not too sure why. probably because i want them to be more than just an "i worked out" post and actually write about something. but time yet again isn't in my favor. so this is all your getting.

i have lots and lots to cover. in due time my friends, in due time, i promise.

until then i'm seeking a prayer/happy thoughts/spirit fingers request for my dad who had his hip replaced yesterday. he's in recovery and is in pain, but getting better. i myself had a small heart attack yesterday as my mother forgot her cell phone and went through the whole day without hearing a single word until about 8pm when one of my aunts called to tell me all went well. i'm flying home in a couple of weeks to visit.

7/4/11

jog/walk 40min