Where have I been? Random update.

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How is it almost summer? I can't believe we have been living in this house for almost a year, in some ways it feels like yesterday and in others it feels like ages ago! The last couple of weeks I haven't had a lot of time to put aside for blogging unfortunately, so I thought I'd share a random update about how things have been going.

We built a playground in our backyard. Seems like it should be a simple endeavor, but it most certainly was not. It took over a week and now I have a bunch of landscaping to do to finish it off.

I went for a not-so-great 14k run on Sunday. With the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle half in about a month, I'm trying to maintain the half distance comfortably, but this run just wasn't meant to be. It's unrelated to my injury, but I haven't been feeling 100% and I'm not totally sure what's going on, but it better sort it self out soon!

I'm getting ready for my first Color Me Rad race this weekend in Surrey! I'll be doing it with a friend who is not a runner, so we are planning on walking it together and enjoying the event. We've even created our own team called "Chase the Rainbow"! Be ready for some awesome pictures!

I'm still working on that HUGE chapter for school before my practicum. I'm a little over half way through which is a lot less than I wanted to be at this point considering I wanted to finish it by the end of this coming weekend, there's still hope, but my chances are starting to look slim... So my blogging may be intermittent for a while until I get my new routine sorted out. I've been getting up at 5:00AM about half the time so that I can get 3 hours in before my "mom duties" completely take over the day. Ideally, when I'm working I should be doing 5 hours a day, so right now it's just finding a way to make that a routine that I'm struggling with.

So with all of that, potty training, and preschool visits, it's been hard to sit down and write, never mind read, bake, and run!

May Goals

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How is it May already? This is a tough one for me to write this month. I'm feeling a little at a loss in many aspects and it's been tough to really pinpoint more than one goal. So lets rewind a little bit and recap April first.

APRIL:
1. Finish the Las Vegas Mustang 50th Half with no pain and injury-free! 
Well I was mostly pain free. I did feel pain, but since we walked the majority of the last half of the race and chose to have fun instead of really race, it didn't so much matter. I hope for a little bit more of a serious output at BMO, but will just have to see how things go.

2. Read 3 books.
I read only 2 and that's all I really have to say about that right now... fail.

3. Continue to work on balance between Strength Training & Running.
I went to bootcamp on and off this month and though it was a positive experience and a GREAT deal I found on Groupon, the wheels definitely fell off the wagon after our vacation.

4. Learn how to garden.

By summer, we should have Broccoli, Peas, Beans, & Lettuce!

This has actually been a moderately successful experience. We started with the lawn, which was way more involved than I ever imagined. At our last house the lawn was a patch of grass about the size of a coffee table, so with almost an acre, things have definitely changed. We had someone come and rip up the moss with a special tool who works in our neighborhood and then we had to rake it all up and remove it. Then I seeded, fertilized, and cut the remaining grass. That was about 3 weeks ago, it's finally starting to grow back, but with lots of weeds, so I will have to work on that! Next, I planted my vegetable garden, some strawberries, rhubarb, and a bed with gladiolis for some cut flowers in the summer!
I had managed to plant some tulip bulbs back in the fall and some other things, so I was pleased to see those! I've still got some work to do with the grapes I think and a few other flower beds/cleanup.

MAY:
1. Try to pace Brandi (and myself) to a sub 2:27 BMO Half Marathon
This is a random goal that I wasn't anticipating, so I really hope my foot behaves and it works out. Normally, it wouldn't be an issue at all (with a PR of 2:08 and a relatively consistent sub 2:20), but the way things have been going I am mildly concerned. Either way, it's always fun to run with a friend so I'm so happy we get to do another race together!

2. Just enjoy the rest of my May races.
I will have 2 other races in May and my goal for now is to just enjoy and have fun and of course finish uninjured. It looks like my June race schedule might change so I'm just trying to focus on May for now and be happy with that, more on that next week.

3. Finish my surgical chapter and start my practicum.
This is obviously something I haven't talked about much, but I am so close (sort of) to finishing school and doing my practicum which will hopefully get me a job. I just have this one GIANT chapter to get through. It's supposed to take 2 months and I'm hoping to complete it in 1 month.

That's all for now folks. My usual goals will continue including drinking more water, reading, trying to consistently run, and gardening, amongst other things.

What are your goals this month?

School Nerves

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I haven't said much about this over the last few months, in fact I think I've only mentioned it once briefly in this post. But now that I'm well into the middle of it, it feels dishonest to not talk about it. I'm currently in a program to become a medical transcriptionist. It is a year long online course. It consists of a study portion as well as a practicum. It has been a long time since I've been in school so I admit that I struggled quite a bit at first, perhaps that's why I haven't mentioned it. I was unsure of how things would pan out, especially attempting to do it with a toddler at home.

Well anyways, I'm at the point in the course where I have to complete the 1st of 3 exams that make up my final grade.

 



 

Hopefully sometime around June of next year I will be employed as a medical transcriptionist. But until then, I am a student again, which seems so very strange to me. As soon as I reached the chapter before this upcoming exam, I began to feel anxious. It has been so long since I've done any sort of exam... Up until this point I've had to complete several chapter tests but this one is more than 20% of my final grade. I've always been the type of student that wants to do well but this feels extremely important. I want this type of job, I need it, it is something I can do and be a stay-at-home mom at the same time. So back to studying I go so that I will hopefully have completed my exam before we head to Florida for Wine and Dine next week! And just to make things interesting I'm doing a half marathon this weekend too... What have I gotten myself into?

If you know anything about transcription, you may be thinking aren't grammar and punctuation really important? They are, and I know the writing on my blog doesn't always follow the rules but I like to think of this as a place (even though it is very important to me) where I don't have to think about the rules so much. So if those things bother you, I do apologize as I know some of my posts are not always correctly edited.

Are you in school? Are you a practicing MT? Please share your advice/tips on exam prep!