Nicole Neff

I accomplished quite a bit this weekend. I always hate to see the weekend go, but it doesn’t hurt as much when you get a lot done.

Saturday started out with going to get my driver’s license renewed. Long story short, I’d been driving on an expired license since my birthday in October and didn’t realize it until Friday night. I was in and out of the BMV in 20 minutes.  Then I went to pick up our Angel Food order and get the oil changed in Tyler’s car. The rest of the day was spent working on dishes and taking a nap since it was rainy out. I was so excited that I woke up to sunshine, so I put on my running gear and went on a 7+ mile run (unfortunately, I don’t have all those fancy schmancy gadgets that tell me my distance, so I’ll have to drive it to see). It was a FANTABULOUS run! I made it back in about an hour and 5 minutes, which is pretty good. Afterward, I cooked dinner and we had a friend over and watched Saw.

Sunday was a good day, too. I got up early and did dishes from dinner the previous night before I headed to church. Afterward, we went shopping for food to grill since it was such a beautiful day out. BJ and Rachel were to come over and have lunch and finish up our HAWAII plans! We got everything ironed out, and figured out our main activities: horseback ride through Haleakala crater on Maui, and on Oahu we’re going on a 45-minute helicopter ride and snorkel/kayak trip. Of course, we’ll also tour the Dole plantation and spend plenty of time on the beach. We also finalized our car rentals on both islands. It feels good to get it all done, but not to pay for it. Nonetheless, we’re beyond excited and can’t wait for May to get here!

I always feel so reluctant to come back to work. Where do the weekends go? Luckily, I had a jury to get ready today, so that motivated me a bit more than a usual Monday morning.

EDIT TO ADD: Thanks to Tiffany’s suggestion, I now know that I ran 7.46 miles yesterday. Whoo hoo!

…or maybe I’m getting BACK on track. I actually ended up getting out of bed Wednesday morning to run. I did an easy mile out and then ran poles all the way back. I had not done sprints like that for a long time, and my body made sure I was aware of the fact. My goal was to slowly jog in between my sprint intervals, but there were a couple of times that I just had to stop and catch my breath and keep myself from getting sick. I definitely know I need to work more of this stuff in my regular routine…maybe if I do, I’ll hit my sub-2 hour mark on my half marathon.

Then last night I did five miles on the ol’ treadmill downstairs at work. I’ve been pretty stressed lately, though, and it was not a good five miles. I had to stop a couple of times just because my mind wasn’t in it, and when your mind isn’t in it, your body will not follow, either. I did a couple sets of weights on upper and lower body, but I was just not with it enough to do more.

I think I’m working out again tonight, so I hope to redeem myself. I might try the elliptical just to not wear out my legs since I plan on doing a long run tomorrow. I’m hoping for six or seven miles without stopping, but we’ll see. Plus, it’s supposed to rain and I don’t usually run in the rain, but I guess I need to stop being a baby about it.

I’ve been totally slacking in the running department, but tonight I ran 4.3 miles. Felt pretty good to start out, middle was horrible, but I finished strong. The crisp air made it totally perfect for a run. AND I’m totally loving this daylight savings stuff. I didn’t start my run until 6:30 tonight after I got home from Indy and I still had some daylight left to take Lola on a walk when I got back!

I plan on getting up tomorrow morning to do some sprint work up and down my street, but if it’s going to happen, I’d better go join that snoring man of mine in bed!

Yesterday, I got a call at 6:45 a.m. letting me know that Kyla (Tyler’s sister) was in the hospital and that there was a baby on the way! I was so excited, but totally bummed that I had to go to work. Tyler and I decided we would work half a day and head up to Danville, but we were too late. It was a quick birth, with little Elizabeth Cay Payne being born at 2:03 p.m. (Indy time). She weighed in at 5 pounds, 7 ounces, and was 18 inches long. Let me tell you, she is a beauty! (There may be some distortion in these photos since I had to resize them after I had placed them on the page. Sorry!)

Tyler wasn’t so sure about holding her (he’ll get used to it and even learn to love it), but I couldn’t get enough of her. I can’t wait to spoil her rotten!

We spent the night with my parents last night (which is only an hour or so away) after visiting with Kyla, Adam, Elizabeth, Lana, Kerry and Myra. It was good to see my parents even though it was a short visit. We had breakfast today with my grandma and aunt (whom I never get to see often enough) before we headed back to visit again and pick up Kerry so we could head back home.

Elizabeth was still very sleepy today, but we unswaddled her so we could get a better look at her. She is a tiny girl, but, man, those feet!

I can’t wait to see her again. I’m already loving this aunt thing! I have a ton more photos on my computer, thanks to a borrowed camera. I can’t wait to get my own so I can make sure the happy parents have lots of great pictures of their little girl as she grows up!

It has been a while, and to all three of my readers, I apologize. Work has actually been busy the past couple days, and when I’m not working, I find myself daydreaming about the life I want. I guess my head is in the clouds about the things I would rather be doing other than working, for example taking pictures, running, or sitting on a Hawaiian beach.

My photography and Photoshop classes are going pretty well. We aren’t covering as much material as I would have wanted by now and I’m not getting as much hands-on exprience, but I guess you can’t rush greatness, right? I’m being totally sarcastic, but to a point, there is truth to it because I want to make sure I master the basics so when I’m out on a shoot, I know how to change the settings on my camera to get the exposure I want. The camera I want doesn’t come out until April, so I have to play the waiting game with that. What I really wanted was the 4oD, but that was out of my price range, especially since I don’t know if I’ll be any good at it, but the Rebel xti didn’t have the features I wanted even though we can afford it. Then I find out that Canon is coming out with a new Rebel xsi and it integrates some of the features of the 40D into a Rebel xti, and I couldn’t be more excited. I hope it will be worth the wait…

As far as running goes, I’ve really slacked in the past couple months. I’ll blame it on the weather, but also on me being lazy and busy. We’ve had snow, rain, ice and downright cold temps lately, so that hasn’t done much for my mileage. I hate running on a treadmill, too, so that hasn’t helped encourage me to run. But this past weekend, we had weather in the 70s, so that was just what I needed to get out and get a couple of runs in: 5 miles on Saturday and 4.3 on Sunday. Both runs were brutal, but the Sunday run was actually worse even though it was shorter. I guess it’s because I was sore from the 5-miler. I didn’t feel very fast at all, but to my surprise, my times weren’t all that bad (I didn’t have a watch, but instead went by the time on the clock when I left and returned). But there is no way I have the endurance for 13.1 miles. The realization that the 500 Festival Mini Marathon really set in this weekend, so I’m much more motivated to do more running. I’m running on the treadmill tonight since it’s raining cats and dogs today. I’ve also been motivated to take off more weight. I’ve put on about 5 pounds overall since the half marathon in October, but I know I’ve lost a lot of muscle and replaced it with fat, so maybe I actually gained more than that in the long run. I’ve been snacking less, eating more fruits and vegetables, and drinking as much water as possible. According to my scale, I’ve already dropped 2 pounds since this weekend, but I’m not sure how reliable that is.

And then there’s Hawaii…it’s 2 1/2 months away. That’s still a long time, but so close considering how long we’ve been planning it. I’m hoping to get some of the final details squared away in the next two weeks: car rentals, getting activities booked, and figuring out what I want to take (read: shopping!). Of course, my desire to lose weight also has a lot to do with going to Hawaii. I bought two new bathing suits at the end of the season last year, so it would be a shame if I couldn’t fit into them! Right now, I need a vacation on a sunny, sandy beach, so that has kept me going. Before I know it, it will be our third anniversary and we’ll be on a plane to our tropical paradise!