…I’ve just been super busy. With work, classes, traveling, and training for the half marathon, I have had little time for anything else.
First, an update on my running. Last week was my best running week in a very long time. I ran three days during the week at five miles apiece, plus a long run of 9 miles on the weekend. Grand total, 24 miles. Not too shabby. And my long run was so great! I did the big loop of 4.3 miles that is near my house twice, and tacked on an extra little loop each time for a total of at least 9 miles, if not more. I only stopped in between big loops at the house to get some water and one other time because a dog started chasing me (it was the first time I was actually close to using my pepper spray). I’m on track this week to do even more…I have done 15 miles already, and I plan on doing another 4.5 on Friday morning, and then my long run of at least 10 sometime this weekend, depending on the weather (it’s supposed to rain on Saturday). This will put me at about 30 miles for the week, which is so great considering the mini is less than a month away. I’ve been really disciplined in the running, even going after my classes at Ivy Tech get over with if it’s not too late. This race is a biggie, with 35,000 people entered, so I want to make it my best run ever. I’m feeling very confident and strong right now, so I’m praying for good health and no injuries between now and then. The only thing I’m down about is that I seem to be gaining weight instead of losing it. I know I like to eat, but good grief, I don’t think I eat THAT much.
I didn’t do my long run until Sunday this past weekend because we were visiting our new niece, Elizabeth. I wanted to go up to Indy to get some pictures of her while she is young, so we made the trip up on Friday night and came home late Sunday morning. I had a great time taking pictures of Elizabeth. She’s such a cutie! But because she sleeps a lot, I wasn’t able to get all the pictures I wanted. I still got some good ones, though, and Tyler and I are going to Ivy Tech tomorrow so I can do some editing on them. I want to get a book made of all the images I’ve taken, and since I don’t have a computer with Photoshop on it, I have to use the computers at the school. I don’t know my way around Photoshop all that well, so hopefully they will turn out okay. I had such a great weekend with Kyla (Tyler’s sister) and Adam. I really felt like I got to know them a lot better and bond with them. They’ve not lived locally since Tyler and I have been married, so I usually only get to see them during their short stays when they visit the family.
Photography is going well. I think I’ve decided to go with Appointed Design in Lafayette to edit my images. Since I won’t have Photoshop for quite a while, I’ll have to outsource the editing. I had been looking into some of the bigger companies, but really wanted someone more local that I could really count on to listen to my ideas and taylor how they edit pictures to my taste. I contacted Pictoral twice, but have yet to hear back from them. So if that is any indication of the kind of service I will get, I’ll gladly go with a smaller, local business like Appointed Design. I’ve been in contact with the owner through email, and I feel completely confident that she will do a great job. I will be building my portfolio over the next few months by taking pictures of some family and friends who have expressed some interest in it and then working on actually getting paying gigs as I go. I’m so excited about this. And I’m quickly learning how my camera works, so I feel much more confident about going out and doing some photo shoots. I plan on buying some filters for my camera in the next couple of weeks. I want a UV filter and definitely a polarizing filter, but I’m not sure what brand to go with. I also need a camera bag…I’ve been worried constantly that I’m going to break my camera without one.
The other good news is that I won $500 this week on the radio. I’m now in the running for the $100,000 grand prize, which would be pretty sweet. We would pay off our house and then work on saving money for a while. Eventually, we’d like to build, but we want to save so once we do build, we won’t have a huge monthly payment. I’m not holding my breath for the grand prize, but there are only three of us so far who have qualified, so it might not be too bad of odds.
So there you have it…my life in the past week and a half. I’m exhausted just writing about it.
