Thank you Red Hot Chili Peppers

As I've mentioned it has been a VERY BUSY TWO WEEKS, not hard, but super super busy. Today as I was driving home for the billionth time in a week contemplating on everything that is on my plate right now-a song came on. Just a little song is all it took for me to smile to myself. Thank you Red Hot Chili Peppers for writing Scar Tissue. And thank you 103.7 The Mountain for playing it at that moment. I needed it.

WW: Week 4

You may notice that I skipped week 3. yeah I did. enough said.

This week however I rocked it losing 4.6 pounds total! I am making way better decisions than previously in my life and it feels good. Walking will continue this next weekend when I feel I am able to not be in pain and walk and that I will have time mostly!

I head to Spokane (armpit of Washington) to present at the Washington State Association of School Psychologists. I'm getting nervous. Then in March I head to Chicago and present at the National Association of School Psychologists. The reason I say this is I AM TOTALLY SLACKING On my walking and I have to do a half marathon in five weeks! Things will change, I just need to get over last week's "week of hell 1" and this week's "week of hell 2" then I will be back on track. Two jobs, grad school, and wedding planning are sucking my life from me rapidly.

Taking Jim for Granted

Doesn't that sound like the name of a movie or something? Or perhaps just "Taking Jim" sounds better. Either way, I am taking Jim for granted.

The other day he said that I hadn't written anything about him on my blog in awhile which I thought was an attempt at some attention so I better do it and the fact that it is totally true. I haven't heeded him the attention that he deserves.

As you know, I've had a shoulder/neck injury so bad that at the Seahawks game last week I sat crying for two reasons, one they sucked and two I was in an intense amount of pain even on lots of painkillers, anti-inflammatories, and muscle relaxers. So in comes Jim's part in all of this. The doctor literally said "any time you can get a massage-do, it will help." So I took that as "any time you can get Jim to give you a massage-do." So I did. In the last 16 days, for as long as this has been going on, he has been whole-heartedly giving me massages whenever I asked or even looked in pain. Just another reason I love him. Oh and he makes me dinner a lot, oh and he prints things out for me at his office a lot, oh and he brings all my heavy bags in and out of my car, oh and he's freakin' adorable.

New Job

As If I'm not busy enough I decided to go get a second job to help with my schooling bills along with the wedding bills. SO, without further adeu let me introduce you to my new job. My title is "Research Assistant," and I work for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Washington. This particular study has been going on since 2001 in which the two principal investigators received A HUGE AMOUNT of money from the National Institute of Mental Health, a branch off of NIH, for a longitudinal study looking at depression and conduct disorder in middle schoolers. They are looking at commorbidity issues and now taking it into adulthood. We are now in phase 7 of this and all the middles schoolers are now 12th graders and/or out of school. I go to their house or a place to meet and interview them for 3.5 hours and then someone else at the same time interviews their parents for about 2 hours. It is pretty intense but the people we interview have gotten the hang of it after 7 or so years. They make money so everyone is happy. There are very stringent rules when you are dealing with research and everyone needs to be trained the same way for inter-rater reliability which may or may not affect validity issues. So I've had a few intense training sessions and they will continue until they feel I am ready! Which should be at the start of November! Thank you Jennie for hooking me up with this job!

Now I've done research before in my undergraduate years where I worked with pigeons and then I worked on another research project in which we looked at pro-anorexia websites and categorized what anorexics had commented on, fascinating stuff. However, this time I don't have to enter all the data, we have someone for that to keep it unbiased. I just do the interviews and pass my computer to the other researchers! However, this is also majorly funded at the standards are 100 times more than what I am used to for research. I love it!

Injury Stops Training

So for the past week I have been in such intense pain. So much pain that I couldn't even lift my arms to wash my hair in the shower. I have done something to my trapezius so the doctor thinks. I think she is full of crap. She gave me medicine to reduce the inflammation but no pain medicine. Luckily I called my uncle up and he gave me a blessing and some prescription ibuprofen which has helped a little. I really am just shocked at how much I'm in pain. Seriously I'm in pain, sitting, standing, walking, anything. I'm just in constant pain and it had gone on for 9 days now. I can't sleep and I'm just frustrated. My muscle relaxers that I had from a previous injury don't even alleviate anything which makes me think it isn't a muscle injury. I am willing to try anything. But first, I just need something for the pain.

Calling 911 is never a fun experience

So Monday afternoon I was on a walk in Jim's neighborhood in Magnolia by myself. I knew I needed to get 40 minutes in so I just simply headed down the street all the way to the end and headed back all the way to the other end to end up back at his place. On the way home, about ten minutes from my destination, I saw this young kid trying to break into someone front window. He looked about 12-14 or a small 15 year old, kind of sk8terish (yes I just did the sk8 thing), with a yellow beanie, blonde hair coming out and a black shirt and jeans. I totally paid attention. So I made a little noise with my feet (I was on the other side of the street) and he turned and looked and immediately stopped what he was doing and walked away in a hurry. Then I kept walking to where I could see him but he couldn't see me. He went back to the window. Then someone from next door to the house he was maybe or maybe not breaking into came out, a kid, to take the garbage out. The kid immediately jumped into the bushes and hid and kept a watch out until the kid went back inside. Meanwhile, I'm contemplating whether or not to call 911. So as I was walking back, after taking notice of the street number, cars parked outside (none), description of the kids, etc. I decided that if it were me and my house had gotten broken into I might want someone to call, even if they were not sure. I mean the kid could have been breaking into his own house for all I know, except he acted so suspiciously. So when I got back to Jim's place I decided to call, better safe than sorry. They put an officer on and I was talking to the operator and the officer at the same time. All I can say is good thing I know where North, East, South, and West are or I would have been confused. They kept me on the phone for a bit and took my info. And that was that. The officer close to our area was on his way right then and there. I don't know what ever became of it but I hope I at least prevented a robbery from taking place and/or provided a very detailed description of the suspect/perp. That's all

WW: Week 2

I was down 3.8 pounds this week! Which translates too...I forgot how many sticks of butter. Someone want to do the math for me? For a grand total of 5.6 pounds lost in two weeks. Which means my points go down 1, which is good! What was funny is I thought this wasn't my best week but I had increased activity but I had eaten into my extra cushion of points, which I've never done before, but what was nice is instead of beating myself up about it I just realized that those points are there for these kinds of things so I didn't have to just give up as I probably normally would have. Today at the meeting we talked about nurturing the self and having a "Cat-i-tude." Basically, cats do things to get their way and take care of themselves and we need to do that too. Not neglecting duties but just taking care of yourself. I actually know quite a few people who do this very well. Analisa my cousin with three kids ages five and under always makes time for herself. My friend, Carren, knows when she needs her me time and my mom and sister Whitney know that even just reading a magazine alone with no distractions is taking care of yourself. So here is to another week of being successful. Here is a great quote by Susan Taylor (taken from her book, Lessons on Living).

"Whether we are female or male, we must not allow the relentless demands of family and work to override our critical need for self-nurturing. When we fail to nurture ourselves, our joy is depleted and our capacity to serve diminished. Giving from an empty vessel causes stress, anger, and resentment, seeds that sow disorder and disease. Attempting to meet the demands of the world without first attending to our own needs is an act of self betrayal that can cause us to lose respect for our value and worth."

What?!

So I was telling Jim about some wedding dresses and I read out the description to one of them, it read "Satin Off-the-Shoulder A-Line with Side-Drape." Jim said, "that sounds like a play call for football." It does?

http://www.davidsbridal.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplayView?storeId=10052&catalogId=10051&categoryId=-49991498¤tIdx=7&subCategory=-49999486|-49998983|-49991498&catentryId=2000169&cm_mmc_o=KPPybpzkCjCPybpzk7BcEPyBclwnii9CjCHFzbkCjClfYkw9_yviND

Bob Dylan!

Jim and I had the chance to go to Bob Dylan the other night. He has been on my top five list forever so I just had to spend the money to do so. It was well worth it as he sang my favorite song second on the set list! Lay lady lay! PS-he doesn't sing that song very often on his tours. My eyes got misty and as I was standing there holding hands with Jim I thought how blessed and lucky I am. I may be broke a lot but I'm broke because I do fun things with my life. And I have someone whom I love very much. I am the luckiest (to steal from Ben Folds).

Weight Watchers

I'm on day five of weight watchers and I think I'm doing really well. But only the scale will tell on Sunday. All I see lately are points, points, points. As of now, I actually have quite a bit but it will go down as I lose weight. I need all the encouragement I can get and I'm writing this on my blog because I know the more I let the world know the more I will be accountable. For me, weight watchers is about weighing-in to the evil ladies (actually really nice, but said for dramatic effect)which makes me strive and push harder than ever because I would hate to let them down. Especially, Jeannie who talks with a Dora puppet and says "just keep swimming," which has always been my motto but maybe never spoken to me by a puppet before. But for now I'm still swimming! Hallelujah

PS-I have kind of fallen off the wagon for walking and need some help! I haven't missed my big walks on Sunday which to me are the most important ones (ie: five miles, two miles brisk, 4 miles easy), but the 20 minute strolls or the 35 minutes easy, have stopped. HELP. I HAVE TO GET BACK ON IT!