AMAZING trip out west!

Before I start I would recommend that you get something to drink, a snack, or go to the bathroom if you need to go because this post is going to be LONG! :)

Our trip out west was absolutely amazing and we crammed just about everything we could into it! For those of you who don't know, I went with 2 of my friends from Penn State (Margaret-maid of honor at wedding, and Abby). We all flew into Phoenix Monday morning. We rented a car and headed northwest from Phoenix to Lake Powell. We drove the majority of the day, stopping along the way at this little native american trading post/restaurant for some awesome indian fry bread topped with roast beef for dinner (think southwest version of hot roast beef sandwich). This place we stopped at was in a "town" that consisted of a trading post & restaurant across the street from some other building....and that was it. The rest of the "town" was just dessert & mountains, no other buildings. The scenary along the drive was gorgeous. We finally made it to Lake Powell sometime right before sunset (we weren't really sure what time it actually was....we kept getting confused because AZ doesn't observe Daylight Savings Time but the indian reservations in AZ do so at any given point we were either an hour ahead or behind of what we thought :) So anyways we are driving through Page, AZ (a little bit bigger town-it had a Pizza Hut and like 5 hotels) and trying to find our campground for like an hour. Our mapquest directions kept leading us away from the Lake but Mags said our campground was at the actual Lake. We finally asked for directions and they pointed us over this bridge/dam to Glen Canyon Nat'l Park a few minutes away (right by the lake). This wasn't on the mapquest directions but at this point the sun had already set and we'd all been awake since 5 am so we didn't care. We drove up to the site and the guy at the registration for the campsite was locking up when Mags ran out of the car for us to check in and get to our campsite. He said her name wasn't on the list of late registrants but we could just pick a site (they had a lot open) and come in and pay him in the AM. So we set up our tent with the help of the car headlights and fell asleep. Needless to say we woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning (literally) and watched the sunrise over Lake Powell (amazing).

Sunrise over Lake Powell.

We tore down camp and repacked the car to head into Page for our 7:30 reservation to see Antelope Canyon. Well, remember how I said indian reservations didn't observe daylight savings time? Apparently Lake Powell is on an indian reservation so when we thought it was 7:15 it was really 6:15. Also, the camp didn't open until 8 am and by that point we would be long gone in the middle of Antelope Canyon. So yeah, big whoops on our part, we stole a camping night from the National Parks! Shhh, dont' tell anyone ;) So we drove around and took some pictures of the Lake until it was 7:30 and time for our Antelope Canyon tour. We all loaded in this suburban and they started driving us out to the canyon for our tour. We were driving away from the Lake, toward the canyon, and on the way there, Mags noticed a campground called "Page Lake Powell Campground." Apparently that was the camp ground we were supposed to stay at but we couldn't find it the night before! It was no where near the lake! (VERY deceiving name!) Oh well, honest mistake! So by accident we ended up camping at this amazing site right on Lake Powell for free.

OK, so then we went to Antelope Canyon which was absolutely amazing! This canyon had been formed from flash floods and water and is over 150 million years old. We walked through the canyon (about 1/4 mile each way) and took some AMAZING pictures! Our tourguide was really good at helping us get good shots. She also told us that with each flash flood, the floor of the canyon can rise or lower an average of 5 feet. That's pretty amazing. I just hope it never fills up all the way because this canyon is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. I'm hoping to get one of my pics blown up and framed.

Antelope Canyon

So after Antelope Canyon our next stop was Bryce Canyon in Utah. We realized in the wee hours of Tuesday morning that the time change between AZ and Utah was going to mess us up again and we had 3 hours from the end of our Antelope Canyon tour until our horseback riding tour in Bryce Canyon. Luckily the drive was only supposed to take 2 hours and 45 minutes! We ran into a teeny bit of construction (the only "traffic" we hit the entire time) and ended up being a little late to our tour but called ahead and they waited for us. They were pretty laid back in Utah. So I've never ridden a horse before, let alone for 4 hours up and down a mountain and on the edge of a canyon! My horse's name was J.D. short for Jack Daniels (how appropriate for me......all the other horses had typical horse names like "Lucky" or "Stormy"...haha). We rode up the mountain and stopped at the top of one of the canyons for about 30 minutes. It was amazing. Our two tourguides were "cowboys" and also did rodeos. The one guy was telling us all about staying on the horse/bull for the first 10 seconds and how much money you can make, and also about how many times he's been injured and how when he frequently needs to be intubated if he falls off the horse and lands on his back (ummmm, that's not something I would brag about buddy!) And on the way back down the canyon (well, technically we were still on the top of the canyon...very close to the edge) we had to stop because the tourguide in the front on his horse saw a baby rattlesnake and apparently horses are afraid of rattlesnakes. Luckily the thing slithered away and no one's horse freaked out and fell off the mountain ;)

Bryce Canyon view from my horse!

So that evening we stayed at this awesome campground/hotel/travel stop called Ruby's (I highly recommend if you ever go to Bryce Canyon)! We stayed in a tipee!! It was awesome!!! They also had an outdoor pool and hot tub. The hot tub felt amazing after spending 4 hours riding a horse! And the weather was starting to get a little cool so it was super relaxing sitting in the hot tub for a little bit. It got pretty chilly in the tipee that night! Luckily I had my super warm sleeping bag so I was nice and cozy all night. I'm not sure how cold it got but that morning we woke up and it was sleeting and there was SNOW on our tipee door!!!!!!! (Only a tiny bit but still! The tipee was not any warmer than our tent the night before!) So anyways we were up so we decided to go see the sunrise over Bryce Canyon. We didn't actually see the sun rise because of all of the clouds/snow/sleet but there was a gap in between some of the clouds so it cast some pretty cool light onto the canyon and the canyon itself was AMAZING! We drove up to a couple scenic views to take some pictures and then decided to get some breakfast. Luckily, it didn't snow/sleet/rain while we were at the canyon but on our way to breakfast it started HAILING! Crazy!

Bryce Canyon Sunrise

We had originally planned to head straight to the Grand Canyon from Bryce but had heard from numerous people how amazing Zion National Park was and found out we really weren't that far from it. So since it was 7:30 AM and we had already seen Bryce, we decided to head further southwest to Zion. This was the most breathtaking place I've ever seen in my life! I seriously almost cried it was so unbelievable. I was so overcome with emotion at how astonishing Zion was! We were able to drive deep into Zion before they didn't let you drive anymore. We were COMPLETELY surrounded by the absolutely gigantic mountains and we even drove through one! The winding road led us down through these mountains/canyons until we go to the visitor center. From there we rode up through some of the park on a shuttle and went for this really great hike. I could have spend DAYS at this place! I think we stopped at almost every single pullover place you could pullover to take pictures!

Checkered Mountain at Zion

Can you see me?!?!?!

After Zion we headed south again toward the Grand Canyon. We took the "alternate" route which also happened to be the "scenic" route and this was the best drive I've ever been on in my life! (I hate driving/traveling in cars). We saw absolutely amazing rock formations/mountains and you just couldn't stop staring at them for miles and miles!

We finally made it to the Grand Canyon about an hour before the sun was supposed to set! We ended up stopping at a bunch of the drive up points to get pics and just made it to the final drive up point literally 3 minutes before the sun set! But we made it!! And it was amazing! I can't believe we were able to watch the sun rise over Bryce Canyon in the freezing cold, hike through Zion National Park with perfectly clear blue skies, and then watch the sun set over the Grand Canyon.....ALL IN ONE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!! Next to my wedding (our anniversary is Sunday btw, YAY!), this was definitely one of the most amazing days of my life!

We made it!!

View before sunset

Sunset over the Grand Canyon

Thursday morning we got up early (again!) and drove up to the grand canyon and took the shuttle tour up to Hermit's Rest stopping along the way to take lots and lots of pictures.











Then we headed south to a small town called Williams, AZ which historic Route 66 runs through. It was really cute, we had lunch there at a little mexican restaurant and sat outside...the weather was perfect! We continued to head south to Prescott, AZ and stopped in for a beer at the Prescott Brewing Company. Then we put the pedal to the metal to make it back to Phoenix in time to drop me off for my 6:00 flight back to Bham!

This is I think my longest blog EVER but our trip was so awesome I wanted to include everything in it! I'll have my pictures posted on webshots soon! I promise! I'll let you know when they're up!

Aloha

Aloha from Hawaii. Well, Aloha from Matt from Hawaii. These are the pictures my brother torments me with on an almost daily basis. j/k....I LOVE getting these pics. It looks so beautiful. Maybe Tom and I will magically come into some money so we can go visit him ;) Maybe not......but a girl can dream, right?

Happy Birthday to Tom!

Ahhh, another relaxing weekend has come and gone. Tom's birthday was today so we cleared our schedules and did nothing all weekend. It was fabulous considering we've had something going on every single weekend since forever it seems. I cooked a bunch of his "Favorites" (which also happen to be my favorites too ;) and I tried a couple new recipes. It was a pretty good food weekend and we are stuffed and probably about 5 pounds heavier (oops...my bad).

Saturday for breakfast we had "Weekend Brunch Casserole" which consisted of biscuits, sausage, eggs, milk, & mozzarella cheese all combined in a casserole. It was sooooooooooooo good. I wish we could eat that every morning for breakfast. Here's a pic!



For lunch we had Jackie's Buffalo Chicken Dip (not healthy, I KNOW! but soooooooooooo good!). Then for dinner we had Buffalo Chicken Pizza. YUM! It was a little messy but delicious. Here's a pic.



I also made lemon cupcakes and lemon cookies. (If you haven't guessed by now, Tom's a big fan of buffalo chicken & lemon sweets ;) Today we had sausage, eggs, & biscuits smothered in country gravy, my mom's Baked Chicken recipe, and for dinner we're having my Crock Pot Mozzarella Chicken. Needless to say we have plenty of leftovers for lunch this week! Here's some pics of the desserts!

Runnin' Again!

After a month of moving repercussions I finally got my lazy butt in gear to start running again....and I'm sooooooooo sore! But it does feel good to be running again...and as Tom would say I'm definitely less "irritable" when I've been running :)

This weekend is Tom's birthday! And I don't have to work! YAY! We're going to have a nice relaxing weekend at home and hopefully go to the pool a lot. I can't wait!

And I'm super excited for next weekend. Tom just found out about the Magic City Brewfest. Yes, it is just what it sounds like....a beer festival right here in Birmingham! I can't wait! 100's of beers, good southern food, and live music. It's going to be awesome. Website

Then the following Monday (12 days and counting!) I leave for the Grand Canyon for a few days! I can't remember if I blogged about this yet or not....so I'll just blog about it anyways :) Mags, Abby and I are flying into Phoenix, renting a car, and doing some serious sight-seeing for 3 days before I have to be back in Birmingham for work. We're going to Bryce Canyon, Antelope Canyon (this looks absolutely AMAZING, I can't wait to see it in person!), camping at Lake Powell, and visiting the Grand Canyon on our last day there.

Smokin'

So Tom and I stepped out of our apartment the other morning and it smelled like something was on fire. I didn't think too much of it until we got to work and we got out of the car and it still smelled like smoke (think campfire smoke). I knew there were some wildfires in Florida because of the heat but didn't think the smoke would travel this far to Birmingham. I checked it out on the weather channel and apparently I was wrong....

"...SMOKE FROM GEORGIA AND FLORIDA FIRES AFFECTING ALABAMA...

FOR THE PAST TWO MORNINGS SMOKE FROM THE GEORGIA AND FLORIDA FIRES HAS AFFECTED ALABAMA. THE SMOKE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO US FROM A DEEP SOUTHEASTERLY FLOW. THIS SMOKE CAN BE SEEN ON VISIBLE SATELLITE AS FAR WEST AS LOUISIANA...EASTERN ARKANSAS...AND SOUTHERN TENNESSEE.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THIS NOTICEABLE WEATHER PHENOMENA OCCURS AS THE SURFACE COOLS OFF AS THE SUN GOES DOWN. THE AIR JUST ABOVE SURFACE IS WARMER AND ACTS LIKE A BLANKET. EVERYTHING BELOW THIS BLANKET IS TRAPPED. THIS IS CALLED A TEMPERATURE INVERSION. AS THE NIGHT PROGRESSES THIS BLANKET LOWERS...COMPRESSING EVERYTHING TRAPPED BELOW. THIS IS THE SAME SCIENCE BEHIND MORNING FOG. ONCE THE SUN RISES...SO DO SURFACE TEMPERATURES. WHEN THE SURFACE TEMPERATURE BECOMES WARMER THAN THE AIR ABOVE IT...THE ATMOSPHERE MIXES... DISPERSING THE TRAPPED PARTICLES FROM BELOW.

FOR TUESDAY...SMOKE WILL BECOME LESS EVIDENT AS WE MIX OUT. UNFORTUNATELY A TEMPERATURE INVERSION WILL AGAIN SET UP TONIGHT MAKING THE SMOKE MORE NOTICEABLE. THIS WILL ALSO REDUCE VISIBILITIES.

RELIEF IS ON THE WAY IN THE FORM OF A COLD FRONT ON WEDNESDAY. ONCE THE FRONT PASSES...WINDS WILL SWITCH AROUND FROM THE NORTH AND CLEAR THE SMOKE OUT.

PERSONS WITH RESPIRATORY PROBLEMS ARE ADVISED TO REMAIN INDOORS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE UNTIL THE FRONT PASSES."



Just thought this was interesting :)

New Pics

Pics from Joe & Laura's visit in March, Jackie & John's visit in April, and the Crawfish Boil.
http://community.webshots.com/user/awesomeanne/3?start=42

Jackie & John's visit

Since we moved 1 week after Tom's sister Jackie and nephew John Thomas came to visit I haven't had a chance to blog about their visit! They took the train down and spent the week with us. We did a bunch of stuff including visit the Vulcan, the Birmingham Zoo, the McWane Science Center, and the Botanical Gardens. Here are a few pics from their trip!

Tommy & John Thomas at the Vulcan

Jackie waving up at us from the ground!

Tommy and John at the bottom of the Vulcan

Tommy and I enjoying our drinks at our new favorite restaurant, Landry's.

John enjoying his chocolate cake at Landry's!

Tom and John at the Zoo

John running through the Botanical Gardens

Crawfish Boil

Finally! We are almost unpacked! We just have some of the little stuff to unpack (you know, the stuff that everyone saves for last and then gets too lazy to organize and put it in it's place and it ends up as "clutter"). :) I'll post some pics of the new place soon. It's pretty much the same layout as the old place, except it has a HUGE storage space right off of the kitchen and an extra large balcony. And it's in the back of the complex so we look out onto a field instead of another apartment building 30 feet away. AND it faces west so I get to see the sunset (how I miss that view from my Philly apartment!) Like I said earlier, the layout is very similar, except it's on the left side of the stairs instead of the right (like the old apartment) so everything is backwards! Minor things, like how we had things set up in the kitchen, I keep wanting to reach to the left for the dish detergent but since the layout is flipped we now keep the detergent on the right. And the washer and dryer got flipped around so now you have to like squeeze into the tiny laundry room first before you can open the dryer door. Anyways, I am *NOT* complaining, it's just kind of funny/weird ;) Pictures soon, I promise.

This weekend we went to Birmingham's annual Crawfish Boil. It was Friday evening/night and Saturday afternoon/night. There were a bunch of bands (Soul Asylum, Papa roach, akon, hinder, cracker, Collective soul, fuel, and Barenaked Ladies to name a few). And we just sat outside, enjoyed the music and a few cold ones, and I ate some crawfish! They are kind of scary looking and I actually screamed by accident when they gave me my plate and one fell out! But our friend Brian showed me how to eat them (you only eat the tail, who knew?) and they were actually quite yummy! Pics are below!

Ahhhh

This is why I haven't blogged in forever! Updates soon...I promise!

My makeshift couch :) Too tired to unpack!

Unpacking

I will update you all (haha...I almost typed "y'all") soon! I promise! We just moved to a new apartment in our complex today and we are EXHAUSTED! So far we have our bed, the tv, and our computers set up...........with pizza and beer in the fridge.... All the necesities......I'm seriously contemplating not unpacking for a little bit ;) (Kidding!) Although I do need to find which box has my pants in it because I think it would look bad if I didn't wear pants to work tomorrow. OK, I'm rambling, I'm exhausted. Good night!

Friday the 13th!

Happy early Friday the 13th to everyone! Just a quick update before our visitors come for the week! Jackie & John Thomas get in tomorrow morning! Unfortunately, I'm going to be at a training class for work all day Friday & Saturday (blah). Actually, it's good that I get to go. It's a course to become certified by the APTA (American Physical Therapy Association) to be a "Clinical Instructor" (so I can have PT students for their clinical affiliations). All of the students for this year have already been scheduled.....but you never know, there are always last minute things that come up. Honestly, work has been so busy that I wouldn't mind not having a student for quite some time.

Anyways, things are going pretty well. I have to go because The Office is almost on and the calzone that I decided to defrost and heat up in the oven is currently leaking it's cheesy goodness all over the baking sheet!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a nice Easter! Tom and I opted out of the traditional ham easter dinner and decided to try something in the crock-pot instead. I've been thinking that I should use it more because there are a ton of good recipes for it and you can throw stuff in it in the morning before we go to work and it will be ready to eat when we come home! Not to mention having leftovers for lunch the next day :) I found this yummy recipe that actually came with our crock pot and it was an instant favorite at the Bodenstine residence. It was chicken, topped with mozzarella cheese, cream of mushroom soup, some milk, and some stuffing. VERY yummy. I found 2 more recipes online that I'm going to try to make later in the week.

Tom's sister Jackie and his nephew John Thomas (our ring bearer) are coming to visit at the end of this week! They get in Friday morning. It looks like it's supposed to warm up for them too! 84 degrees on Friday! Hope everyone has a good week!

Allergies!

Yep, definitely have allergies now that I've moved to the south. I've never seen anything like the pollen down here! Our car & balcony are coated a nice shade of yellowish-green. We were sitting outside eating one day last week and the wind blew and you could just see the pollen EVERYWHERE in the air! It finally rained the other day though so apparently it's supposed to be better from here on out.

Tom and I had another kickball game last night. It was pretty fun...we won :) Not much else that's new going on. I worked last Saturday and I'm working again this Saturday at my second job. I'm chair of our Social Committee at work (Children's) so I've actually been quite busy with that...we have two people leaving next week and April is OT month so I've been working a lot on stuff for that...we have this big luncheon at the end of the month for all of the OT's. It's kinda fun to help plan everything and be in charge of stuff....but I'm really bad at delegating...I could never be a manager.

Tom and I bought a gallon of milk yesterday from Sam's Club for $1.05! I don't know if it was on sale or if it was a mistake or what but we were pretty excited on our good deal :) Just thought I'd share.......

Denial

Hearts are breaking all over the country for this little guy. :(

http://www.cure4jack.org

Joe & Laura's Visit!

Wow, I am way past due with my blogging. Sorry about that, work has been ridiculously busy! And we were busy entertaining last week! Joe & Laura drove down from Kansas to visit for a few days. (Joe is Tom's best friend from home, who now lives in Kansas with his wife Laura). We had a blast and are so glad that they were able to come and spend some time with us! We hung out and relaxed a lot, but also did a lot of fun stuff. We went to the zoo, to a winery, and to an awesome kick-a** dualing piano bar, among other Birmingham area attractions. It was really great to spend time with them, although I don't think the chinchillas have been the same since they left! They miss you Joe! Below are a few pics.

Can I just say that I LOVE dualing piano bars? We went to one in New Orlean's when I was there a few years ago for a national physical therapy conference and it was like love at first sight!....or song :) They didn't have any in Philly :( But they did have just a regular piano bar (with only one piano) and we had a blast the one time we went to it. Anyways they are tons of fun, but everyone usually tends to get nice and rowdy at them, so if you're looking for a quiet evening then it might not be your cup of tea.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Hope everyone had a great St. Patty's Day! I know we did! We started out at a friend's place for green eggs & ham. And contrary to how the green eggs looked, they tasted quite yummy. Then a bunch of us hit up our place for an extended session of carbombs. (Irish Carbombs = a shot of half bailey's and half jameson dumped into a 3/4 pint of guiness and chug). They're quite yummy, but can knock you off your rocker if you're not careful ;) I think everyone had a good time at our place, except for the three people who got sick before 10 pm. Around midnightish we finally went out to a bar, but we were all so tired and hungry that we left and went downtown to this Mediterranean Food place called Al's that's open 24 hours and serves the greasiest yummiest food. We got stopped at a checkpoint too, but of course we had a DD so no worries there. And of course we had some green beer at our place. We found this package store that sold green beer by the gallon :) Here's a few pics!

The Gang

Tommy & Me

A bunch of us around the beer pong table. When we eventually buy a house we are going to have to build in a separate room for beer pong/flip cup!

The BMC. (Brian, Doug, & Tom are in a club we like to call "The Big Man Crew"

Sorry if some of the pics don't show up. I think blogger is having some issues!

Springtime???

By the way it's been like mid 70's down here for the past week and a half! Today it reached 80 degrees! I'm a little worried because if this is what it's like in March I don't even want to THINK about what it's going to be like in June & July!

Red Nose Ball II & Quad rugby

We had a blast last night at the Red Nose Ball! (See last post if you don't know what I'm talking about). They must have raised so much money for Camp Smile-A-Mile. They had 50 items for the live auction! And they had a puppy there that they were auctioning off! It was so cute! A labrador retriever (if it was a border collie, Tom and I would probably be in significant debt right now!) Having the puppy there was such a smart move on their part. They were carrying it around during the silent auction and brought it up on stage during the live auction. Guess how much it went for????? $9,000!!!!!!!!!! Nine thousand dollars! Can you believe it?! I'm sure they raised an easy $100,000 for the camp between the two auctions. It was really amazing. Here's a picture of me and Tommy with our red noses on before dinner :)

We also stopped by The Lakeshore Foundation yesterday to watch some quad rugby. It was really cool! Most of the people who were playing had a spinal cord injury, but there was this one guy who was a quadruple amputee and he was awesome! One of the other guys who works (and plays) at Lakeshore came to talk to us at our PT/OT retreat this spring. He also happens to be a quad amputee and he starred in the movie Murderball. I keep hearing about this movie...I'd recommend it to you but I haven't even seen it myself yet! They showed parts of it at the SCI conference in Atlanta last week. Tom and I really just need to rent it!

I've blogged a lot this week! Maybe I should take a break to let everyone get caught up :)

Red Nose Ball

So Tom and I get to go to a "Ball" tonight! It's awesome because (well, it's awesome for a number of reasons) but mainly because it benefits Camp-Smile-A-Mile which is the children's oncology camp here in Alabama. One of the local children's oncology non-profit organizations bought 2 corporate tables and gave the tickets to some people at Children's to pass out. Since I work primarily with the onco pt's the child life specialist asked me if Tom and I would like to go. Also, we get to go for free, and tickets are $200 EACH!!! We're so excited! Basically it's going to be like the Children's Hospital Gala that we got to go to back in November. There will be a silent auction (I'm going to try my hardest not to bid on anything, but they have some really good stuff and sometimes you can get things for really cheap!) and there will be dinner and a band and a live auction after dinner (DEFINITELY won't be bidding on anything during the live auction!) Anyways I feel like the poor girl that gets to go to the ball because I have one nice black dress (that I bought at a discount store for like $10 or $20) from like 5 years ago that I have to wear to every event! Haha. OK I have to go paint my nails and get ready for the ball...... :)

Kickball!!

That's right, Tom and I are playing on a kickball team! We're playing through UAB Intramurals. We're not sure if I'm really "allowed" to play because I don't really have any affiliation with UAB except through Tom, but I am able to use their gym b/c I live with Tom (a UAB student) so I get a campus card, and that is all I need to play intramurals apparently. Anyways, we were supposed to have our first pre-season game last night, but the other team forfeited so we just scrimmaged ourselves. It was really fun! Although I have this huge welt on my shin just above my ankle from kicking the ball! I even have a bruise already! Hopefully it will heal by next week! Birmingham also has a kickball team that gets together the first Sunday of every month...I think there is a 2 beer limit....but I could just be making that up :) Anyways it's supposed to be 72 degrees here today! Not that I would know since I'm cooped up in the hospital all day ;P But I'm hoping to go for a run outside after work today....I'm very much looking forward to daylight savings time so it will be light out longer and easier to run outside after work. Although I must say I will miss that hour of sleep that I will be losing this weekend!


P.S. Happy Anniversary to Mom and Dad from March 4th!!

Coffee table

I love Ikea so much! We got our new coffee table! Yay! (Pic below). I was very good and fought temptation and didn't buy a lot of stuff that looks-really-cool-but-I-don't-really-need. Anyways the coffee table is cool b/c it spreads apart and has an insert that you can put in the middle to make it longer....which works perfect for entertaining or when we have tons of food on it for football games :) On the downside we now really want to buy the matching tv stand because my current one is a $25 one from wal-mart from about 6 years ago.

I had a really good time at my SCI course in Atlanta. The Sheperd Center in Atlanta is who sponsored the course. They are a regional catastrophic care center and see a ton of patients with spinal and/or brain injuries. Anyways I learned a lot, from how to pop a wheelie to go up a curb (VERY difficult, might I add), to all of the newest research at the cellular level in regards to spinal cord injury. Tom came out Friday night and we went out to dinner at Maggiano's with some of my co-workers and then we went to Rock Bottom Brewery for a few drinks. It was SO GREAT...we felt like we were in Philly again with Maggiano's and Rock Bottom! Luxuries like that don't exist in Birmingham ;)

Today I made another instant favorite for dinner. Pizza meatloaf. I got the recipe out of a recipe book that our church put together a few years ago. Do you sense a theme in all of my cooking (stromboli, manicotti, pizza meatloaf......)? I made some parsley potatoes too but they weren't that good.

My brother and his dog might be coming to visit this week! I hope Haliegh and the chinchillas get along!! She'll definitely want to play with them! Also my new goal is to update more than once/week....we'll see how that goes!

Ikea withdrawal

Let's see, what's new? It's been pretty warm down here in Bama. High 60's all last week. I'm actually enjoying it and hoping it stays like this for a while. Although I do have to say that during last week's trak shak run I was having some bad flashbacks from the Disney Marathon! I'm not looking forward to running outside when it gets super warm.

Today I've basically been a lazy bum because one might say I had too much to drink at last night's theme party at our friend Brian's. I did make some more calzones though....yummy. I'm going to Atlanta at the end of this week for a SCI (spinal cord injury) course so I'm pretty excited about that. And I'm hoping I'll get to go to IKEA too so we can finally get a new coffee table with the money Pappy gave me for it at Christmas. Tom HATES our current coffee table. One of my roommates from college dad made it and it's definitely taken a beating over the years. I miss not having access to TWO Ikeas like in Philadelphia! Anyways I've heard this is a pretty good course so I'm hoping to learn a lot. Adios for now!

Mercedes Pics

Here are a few of the "Professional" pics from the race. There are a couple of us crossing the finish line. Not too great but at least we have them!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful (snowy) day! Yes, I said Snowy! It's snowing in Alabama!!! Actually, it's more like barely hardly even flurrying....with like a 1 mm accumulation on the bottom of our car windows. So maybe I should refer to it as "snow." We're actually probably more likely to have a tornado than a 1 inch accumulation of snow! Last night I was at an orthotic course for work and all of the sudden this siren goes off. It was a tornado siren! We had to move into the hallway for like 10 minutes. Then it hailed for like 5 minutes....and that was all. Man, the south has given me nothing but trouble....first allergies, then it puts me in the path of a tornado! (Just kidding, I love the south.....I guess ;)

Mercedes Half-Marathon

We did it! Sooo much fun! I'm so proud of Tom for running his first half-marathon (13.1 miles)! And the Mercedes half is supposed to be a pretty difficult course! We had two nasty hills to run up....thankfully my 6 months of training on Sunday mornings helped prepare me for those hills! Our overall time was 2 hours and 16 minutes. Not too shabby considering it was Tom's first half and I was sick all of last week! We are pretty excited about it! The post-race party was pretty fun too. Free Jim 'N Nick's lunch and free beer :) I got a free massage too....although it was not that great and considering I stood in line 20 minutes for a 2 minute massage...not worth it at all! Hopefully we'll get our race pictures up soon. We really want to make this an annual event. I think I'm going to stick to half-marathons from now on. Not too challenging and a lot of fun! Here are a couple pics of us after the race!

Me and Tommy right after the finish line!

Drinking our beers at the post-race party :)

Extremes

It's supposed to be 26 degrees tomorrow at the start of the Mercedes 1/2 Marathon! Why can't I run a race in nice 50 degree weather?! It either needs to be 80 degrees (Disney) or 30 degrees (Mercedes)! Tom is going to run with me so I'm excited for that! I'm thankful actually because I haven't run much in the past week because I've been sick. I even stayed home from work one day last week, and I never do that. The doctor told me it was allergies (even though I've never had allergies in my life) and gave me some clarinex D. I definitely feel a lot better, but my head is still kinda stuffy at times.

Anyways the race tomorrow should be pretty fun. We went to the expo last night and picked up our race numbers and are free stuff (T-shirts, water bottles, chances to win a mercedes!). I'm looking forward to the free Jim 'N Nick's, free micholob ultra, and free massages after the race! It's supposed to warm up to 50 degrees by noon so hopefully the post-race party will be a lot of fun. I'll post more after tomorrow and hopefully some pictures too!

Happy Super Bowl Day!

I've officially become a bad blogger. Every time I thought about blogging this week, something else would grab my attention and I'd do that instead. Anyways........

Happy Super Bowl Day! Too bad it's not the Eagles! But I'd be a nervous wreck all day....or else I'd be playing beer pong all day like what happened a few years ago. I hope the Bears win just because the Manning family kind of bugs me....but I don't really care either way. We're going over to a friend's place to watch the game. They're having a "Souperbowl" Party and making lots of yummy soup.

My running hasn't been going to well....I am sick. I kept waking up with a sore throat and hoping it would go away but it just keeps getting worse! I'm sure 6 days of work this week didn't help! But I can't complain. Hopefully I'll be feeling better by the half-marathon next Sunday! I really hope the weather is just like today. Mid 40's....perfect running weather.

I miss snow :( It frosted here the other night and we had to scrape ice off our winshield (with Tom's old UAB copy card because we don't own a scraper....we live in Alabama!)

I've also become obsessed with HGTV. I can't wait to have a house some day and have everything just the way we want it! Ahhhhh, some day.....probably in like 10 years....*sigh* ;)

I can't believe it's February already!

Excuses

I apologize...it's been over a week since my last blog! Saturday was my first day at my new per diem job at Brookwood Hospital. Let's just say there is a reason why I choose not to work with adults full time. But whatever, it's a nice paycheck, it's like twice a month, and if anything, it makes me appreciate my job at Children's even more!

Tom and I were supposed to run 11 miles yesterday morning. We only did 7. Tom was sick all last week and only ran once and I guess my excuse was that I worked 6 days last week....and that I had pizza for Friday dinner, Saturday lunch, and Saturday dinner (we ordered out Friday night!) Considering we were toying with the idea of turning the car around and going back to bed on our way there, I'd say it's pretty impressive that we even did 7!

This week should be a general repeat of last week, work M-F, work Saturday, run 7 miles Sunday morning! The Mercedes 1/2 marathon is only 2 weeks away! I'm a little nervous b/c it's supposed to be pretty hilly. Miles 2-4 are on a gradual incline and miles 9-10 are up hill as well. I would like to do the Nashville 1/2 marathon in April, but I think it's gonna end up costing more money than what it's worth with travel, hotel, etc. To be honest I'd rather spend that money and go to the beach this summer than spend it to go run a half-marathon ;) If only I could find a half-marathon on the alabama gulf coast.........

Lazy Sunday afternoon ramblings

Mmmmm, I just made manicotti! I don't know if it's any good yet......because it's still cooking in the oven...I'll keep you posted! I actually made 2 and froze one so we'll have something easy and yummy to eat during the week. That's my latest kick....cook a big meal Sunday evening, make double and freeze half for later on in the week since neither of us ever feel like cooking after going to work and the gym/running.

Tom ran 9 miles with me this morning! I'm so proud of him. He's getting into shape pretty quickly for the Mercedes half-marathon which is less than 3 weeks away!

Let's see, what else is new......I just finished the book "I know this much is true" by Wally Lamb. Excellent. I read "She's come undone" a few years ago and loved that one too. I liked the recent one the best. His books are soooooooooo long though it takes me forever to get through them. But if you have some time or like to read I highly recommend it.

I'm going for orientation tomorrow.........I'm going to be working some per diem on weekends at a local hospital down here. It'll be rehab, which I like, but it will be adults, which I don't like.......just kidding. It should be a nice break from Children's and hopefully I'll learn a lot too in regards to rehab. I probably won't do it forever, but I figure not much goes on Saturdays from January-March b/c there is no football and the weather is usually crappy. I'm actually signed up to work through June...I'll probably stay with it for at least a year or so since there is no monthly minimum working requirement. I can sacrifice one weekend a month this summer and fall I guess ;)

Ok, manicotti is almost ready......and there is football to be watched (not the Eagles though *sigh* I'm getting used to this...unfortunately).

I love weekends

I'm so excited that it's Friday. We don't even have anything planned for this weekend (except for a 9 mile run Sunday morning at 6:30) but I'm just so glad it's here. Last weekend was pretty productive for us. Tom worked a lot on his thesis project at lab and I cleaned and organized a bunch of my stuff.

I went to a wheelchair basketball tournament at Lakeshore Foundation Saturday afternoon for a little bit. It was awesome! They had all different age groups but the college teams were my favorite to watch. Some of the guys had upper bodies/arms/chests bigger than anyone I know! And they were ruthless! They would just crash into each other and their chairs would turn over and they would just hop back upright chair and all using just their arms. It was really fun to watch. There is a quad rugby tournament there in March that I can't wait to go to.

It's really amazing that the Lakeshore Foundation is literally right down the street from us and it's 1 of only 5 or 6 official Olympic and Paralympic training sites in the whole country. They do a lot of cool research there too. They just did a study on power soccer...which is people who have significant physical involvement/disabilities and use their power wheelchairs to play soccer. Physically, their bodies are not really moving at all, just their power wheelchairs, but the study they conducted found that power soccer had a positive cardiovascular effect on these patients. That's just really amazing I think and has huge implications for the benefits of recreation and physical activity even for people who physically may not even be able to move anything below their neck! Sorry, I'll get off my PT soapbox now :)

It finally got cold down here again....30's and 40's. I hope it's not too cold for the Mercedes 1/2 marathon in February! Although anything can be better than running a marathon with 100% humidity and temps in the 80's! Not that I'm complaining.......... ;)

Stromboli!

Oh my gosh! I just made the BEST STROMBOLI EVER tonight! Actually it's more like a stromboli-calzone. I forget what the difference is between the two, but I only put pepperoni and mozzarella and ricotta cheese in it (b/c I'm super picky) so I think that makes it a calzone. Anyways it came out awesome. I'm so psyched too because I've been craving a good calzone ever since I left Philly and I haven't had anything that compares so far....until tonight :D Actually, I don't think I've had any calzones since I've been down here! There are no good Pizza places and the ones that I've heard are good aren't close to our apartment!

Running is spreading like a disease through the Bodenstine household. Guess who ran 7 miles this morning with me?! Tom! We're both going to run the Mercedes half marathon on February 11th. 4 weeks to go! I think the only way to guarantee that I keep running is to keep signing up for these races. I know the Nashville 1/2 marathon is in April and I hear that's a fun race. We'll see :)

I know, who puts a picture of themselves pretending to eat a stromboli on their blog?!

More Pics

I DID IT!

I DID IT!! I ran 26.2 miles! And on that note...I AM SO SORE! Haha. It was amazing! (And sooooooo HOT with 100% humidity!!!!) There were 16,000 marathoners in all and about 2,000 of us were TNTer's! (Team in Training). It was so inspiring to see all the other purple jerseys while running and read the backs of people's shirts. And it was even more inspiring to see how many people were cheering for Team in Training!

Our Team from Alabama/Gulf Coast met in our hotel lobby at 3:10 am on Sunday to board the bus and go over to the start together. Around 5 they headed us toward our starting corrals and we started at 6 am! We ran through Epcot for the first 3 miles, then headed up to Magic Kingdom which were miles 9-11. Then we ran this long (boring) stretch on this back road from Magic Kingdom down to Animal Kingdom (at which point I thought I was going to die from miles 14-18). Then we ran on some highway but it was kind of cool because at one point we looped back around so we were passing by runners coming the other direction. Plus there were some people cheering at this point too (miles 19-22....unlike miles 14-18). Then we entered MGM studios around mile 22.5. I was looking forward to that the whole run and by this point I was pretty proud of myself for already running 22.5 miles! I figured if for some reason I didn't finish, at least I've run over 22 miles! Then around mile 23 an EAGLES chant broke out (thankully they won last night!!). Then we left MGM and ran through some nice resort area on the way back through Epcot. There weren't as many people in Epcot cheering as I thought there would be. I ran into a guy that I trained with around mile 24 and ran with him for a little bit. Then mile 25 hit and I was so excited! Around mile 26 you could start to hear the people at the finish line and when I finally went around the curve and saw the FINISH line I think my heart stopped! ;) I carried a disposable camera with me and took pics the whole way so I'll post them on my webshots page as soon as I get them developed...I even got my picture with Safari Mickey while running through Animal Kingdom! ;)

All in all it was awesome...very very very very very difficult and exhausting...I know at some points I was being carried through the race by spirits, energy, and prayers instead of by my legs. Not sure if I'll ever run another one. If I do it will be one where there are people cheering the whole way (those back roads between parks where there weren't any spectators were tough....it's amazing how easy it is to run when people are cheering for you - my name was on my race number). The training was extremely time-consuming and the soreness I am currently experiencing is excruciating at times, but that high you get during the end of the run and when you cross the finish line is exhilerating! (way too many words starting with "E" in that sentence!) Here are some pics! More will be up on webshots soon. Only 5 weeks til the Mercedes half-marathon! (I may have recruited me some company during that race...... ;)

Pic Tom took of me at mile 13....too hot....need powerade....

Tommy and me after the race. I saw him at miles 4 (he didn't see me though!), 9, and 13!! And bless his heart (that's SO an Alabama saying) he had to be on the bus to epcot at 4:30 Sunday morning because they closed down the roads for the marathon so there was no other way to get to the parks!

Superhero pose with my cape cooler thingy. Did not need that AT ALL as it was ridiculously hot all day!

Pluto, Me, and Goofy at the TNT Victory Party!

Happy New Year!

So I'm sitting on the couch, enjoying the new year by watching football and basking in Penn State's bowl win when I realized I haven't blogged in a long time! The past couple weeks have been such a whirlwind! We went home for Christmas, which was really nice. We stayed at Tom's parents for a couple days, then went up to my parents for Christmas (watched the Eagles win!!!!!!) and then came back to Tom's parents again before flying back to Bham. Then I went back to work and I had to work Saturday and Sunday too so I've been extra busy. We had some people over last night for new year's eve. We had a blast but can I just tell you how weird it was to celebrate new year's in a different time zone?! We watched the ball drop but it was only 11! Then when the ball dropped for our midnight it was kinda anti-climatic because we already saw it drop ;) Ok, I need to get back to the couch before my imprint goes away ;P I'll update more later and post some pics. Marathon is in 6 days!!!! Ahhhh!!!!! :)