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Thursday, May 1, 2014

Welcome Back, What's New.

Wow it has been almost 2 years since I have even thought about this blog. So much has happened I am not sure where to start. I finally finished my degree as of May 2013 I am a SLU graduate with a BA in General Studies. I thought about taking off a year or two but then panic set in and I signed up for my Master's in Developmental Organization. Ugh, after 2 classes I realized this is not for me. I was lucky enough to realize early that I needed to look into something else. I enjoy my career in Healthcare and realized the options in the Allied Health Department would be a better fit. I was able to switch in January and am starting to work on my Master of Health Informatics. Two classes down.
Brad has been out of the house for almost 3 years now, you cannot believe how proud I am of him and how well he has done in life. He now has a new roommate.
She is a real sweetie once you get to know her. She was abused as a puppy so she understandably has some people issues.
Florica is a senior in high school. We have been busy trying to plan her future... as of right now she will start vocational rehab next year working in a retirement home with the Special School District. Florica knew softball was not her sport and after spending the summer playing tennis with Special Olympics she joined the Ritenour Tennis Team this year. In the spring, she has once again made the Ritenour soccer team on the varsity level. Practice and games as well as Special Olympics basketball, bowling, tennis, volleyball, and softball have kept her busy. 
Doug bought the remaining assets of King's Automotive and opened his own business: A-King Automotive, LLC. We have had some ups and downs but it seems to be on the right track now and building into a success. 
I on the other hand had a health scare when I was diagnosed in Aug 2013 with diabetes. I went through all the stages of denial, grief, anger, and acceptance. I refused to allow a disease take over my life and made the decision to take control. This brings me to my current obsession with running. I have been jealous for some time now of my friends and family when they post pictures and results of 5K's, mudders, and color runs. I wish I could run but there is no way. Even when I was at my healthiest I could not run. Anyway I did everything the doctor asked of me. Meet with the pharmacist to discuss when and how to track my sugar and taking my medication correctly. The dietitian looked at my log and gave me a few pointers but could find no big problems with my diet. I bought a fitbit and determined my biggest problem had to be lack of exercise. I started to force myself to walk on my breaks everyday, with or without my walking partner. But I still longed for a better plan, I could not afford a gym membership but we had a new treadmill at home we had bought a couple of years ago. My first time trying to run on it I could not even run through a 30 second commercial, boy did I have my work cut out for me. Every time I saw a posting about a 5K run I would dream that some day I could participate. Then it happened..... I found out they have a 5K run on Castaway Cay and at Disney World. How did I not know about this sooner. Well I had a new goal, we are going to be on Castaway Cay in November and it can be walked, I knew I could walk about a 15 min/mile. Then I found a program called C25K. I downloaded the app and started to run. When I started to search for a local 5K as a prep I found the Ferguson Twilight 5K run/walk. Once again "walk" popped out at me. Hey I know I can walk a 5K. Then I found a C25K free running group in Ferguson, ok the word "free" got my attention and my competitive nature took over. I joined the group and we are now on Week 7. The only problem is I still cannot run for long without wearing down. That's when I started to look seriously at runDisney trainer Jeff Galloway's run/walk method. The idea is that walk breaks help keep your legs fresh so you remain strong all the way to the end. This week our C25K instructions are to run 2.25 miles....um I cannot run that long without a break so I decided to try the run/walk method with a 30:30 interval. I cut my average mile/min time by .84 seconds. I felt strong and was able to finish. My training continues and my first 5K is set for May 17, 2014. Hopefully I will be able to keep it up and complete a few more runs including some Disney 1/2 marathons in 2015. Not to mention I am having fun coming up with ideas for running costumes.

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