Tagged - 11 Random Things

Life has been crazy and not so fun lately. I started the third year of data collection for the foster care study - LOTS of interviewing is happening which is great but very time consuming. I hope I can survive these last few years I have left. I have been meaning to come visit blog land and catch up on everyones adventures and do a post but I have been lame, choosing to zone out in front of the tv instead when I get down time. Then a few days ago Lauren at laurenontherun tagged me so this is great timing! 

Rules: 1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them you've tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

11 Random Things About Me:

1. I work in Starbucks more than in my office.
2. I have a trained hamster that comes to you when you call her name and stands when you say stand (but you have to have a treat handy or the stand command won't work).
3. I have 10 siblings - 5 brothers and 5 sisters.
4. I am very sensitive to smells.
5. I hate make-up (too!). I only wear it when I feel like it is necessary professionally or if I want to feel especially beautified. 
6. I have been to all 50 states.
7. I have broken my nose snowboarding.
8. I have hit three deer with other peoples cars while driving in three different states.
9. I have changed my name twice. 
10. I like to be in cold weather more than hot weather.
11. I have a crazy talent (other people that I hang around a lot who have noticed it too say it is luck - but it is a talent), whenever I go into an establishment I always just beat the rush so I never have to stand in a long line. It is amazing and happens probably 90% of the time. There is no way that could just be chance probability. 

Now, Lauren’s questions... 

1. Short shorts or long shorts? I like long shorts better than short
2. How do you recover from a tough long run? Chocolate soy milk is my favorite for recovery! 
3. Favorite brand running shoe? Brooks
4. Longest distance ever run? 15 miles
5. What would you do if a rattlesnake coiled up to strike a couple feet from you? That actually happened to me and my friend Ana!! We were running in Riverside and we were talking and came right up to a rattlesnake on the trail. We jumped back before it tried to strike and then threw rocks near it until it slithered away. SO freaky!
6. For women – do you wear make-up?  For men – do you remove hair from anywhere other than your face? Yes but only 4 or 5 times a month.
7. Do/did your parents, guardians, siblings, children run? My siblings run marathons. 
8. How many days is your longest running streak? I actually have no idea. 
9. Would you rather run in extreme heat or extreme cold? Neither. If I had to pick I guess it would be the heat though. Running in extreme cold burns! 
10. If you had to watch the same movie ten times in a row, what would it be? Clue! I love that movie.
11. Vanilla or Chocolate ice cream? Vanilla all the way! 

Now my questions...

1. Where were you born?
2. What is your favorite way to relax?
3. What is something you did as a child that you got in trouble for?
4. What was the BEST race you ever ran and why was it the best?
5. Which do you prefer - ocean or mountains?
6. What is the furthest you have ever traveled from home?
7. What is your favorite restaurant?
8. Would you rather be able to teleport or be able to turn invisible?
9. What is your favorite body part?
10. What is your favorite song to workout to?
11. Would you rather run trails or the road? 

Okay, now my eleven tags. I think several people on my bloglist have been tagged already and I don't have that many people anyway but here we go!

1. Mallory
2. Kate
3. Glen
4. Anne
5. Johann
6. Mama runs barefoot
7. Green Girl
8. Jill
9. Judy
10. Janae
11. Just One Foot In Front of the Other

Dissertation Funding

Wow these past few days I have not done any running because all the dissertation funding applications are due at the beginning of the year. This stinks!! I started a new wave of p90x and Insanity (a series of exercise programs created by beach body that you can do at home) in combination so that has been helping me get some physical excursion time in. Exercise helps me SO much with stress.

I have been thinking about what I would like to do this year in terms of races. I have not done a whole lot of racing these past few years simply because I am so stinking poor I can't even afford the entrance fees. I really enjoy racing however and I would like to make sure that I get in at least 6 races this year. I think I am going to pick them out now so I can budget them in.

My good friend just moved to Boston to get her PhD in counseling at Boston College. We had lunch together yesterday as she was back home for the holiday. There is a good chance that I might fly there this summer to spend some time and it would be awesome to do a half marathon or 10K while I am there. I also really enjoyed the Danskin Triathlon that I did in October so I plan to do that again for sure.

Christmas was fun. I got some new Brooks Cascadia trail shoes and they are awesome. I am not too into writing about items I run with but I had to for these because I think they are amazing. I have had serious issues finding trail shoes that are lightweight but at the same time durable. These shoes are so much lighter than my Salomons and they were great at keeping up with all the rocks and dirt when I took them out for a spin. I went 8 miles on the first go and had no problems at all. I love move in ready shoes.

I also got an awesome bracelet with em. :-)

Hope you are all having a great year so far!

Happy

I have had a sore throat & chest cold sickness this past week. Today I finally felt good enough to get outside. I couldn't really run though because breathing heavy made my chest feel like it was on fire. It was great getting outside though! It felt so good. I took a lot of pictures because it was so pretty.

 I ended up covering 10 miles or so. It has been so long that I was actually in some pain on mile 9 and 10. Bummer. I need to get back on the trails!! 

Annual Blogger Gift Exchange

I got my gift from the annual blogger exchange hosted by Jill! It was very exciting to open the package and I love everything I got!!! I am really excited to try all these awesome fuel options! 

Thank you MCM mama!! I loved my gift it was awesome!! 

Have a great holiday everybody!!

Thanksgiving in Utah

I ended up driving to Utah with my faux fam this year for thanksgiving. We stayed in an awesome cabin up in the snowy woods. I felt like I was in some sort of Lifetime christmas movie. 

This lake was just down a stretch from the cabin.

Mirror Lake

 Martinellis on ice. 

Yum!

We had two turkeys this year... one from the oven and one from the BBQ. My favorite was the BBQ.

 Freaking amazing!

Good guys vs. the bad guys. The good guys won!

There were about 15 people cooking in the kitchen so I just hung around and took the pix. 

After we slept for a bit... it was time for a hike. :-)

It was a very cold day as there were no clouds. Very very pretty though.

Ebby is the pro hiker now. 

We take her too many places for her not to be awesome.

The hike was supposed to be a quick half mile jaunt to this "really cool" ice cave. Sounds awesome right? An ice cave?! Yeah, lets do this!! After the hike, the plan was to go sledding/snowboarding. 

We had a 3 month old, a 3 year old, and a 6 year old so it was supposed to be a quick hike.

However someone made a mistake and it ended up being much longer than a half mile.

Several miles later we ran into some bunny tracks.

Then some deer tracks.

Saw some cool looking trees.

Many many miles later we see the sign!!

Yes!! We made it!! We are so close!!! 

Tired but almost there!

 So we hike a mile more.

There it is! The ice cave!!

The Ice Cave.

Really? This is it?

Ebbs looking around for a different cave.

I don't know what they thought it might look like... but I was imagining some sort of beautiful crystal overhang with loads of icicles hanging down, that created a small structure that you could walk into.

Instead it was a dirt pit with logs sticking out. Hm. Life.

We ran back.

It was a great hike!

Ebby was done by the end. She just wanted to sit.

I loved this white tree against the blue.

She found a tree just her size.

It was great to just relax after. 

What a great time.

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving too.

Graduate School Barbie (TM)

A new gift idea for your loved ones: Graduate School Barbie (TM).

Graduate School Barbie comes in two forms: Delusional Master's Barbie (TM) and Ph.D. Masochist Barbie (TM).

Every Graduate School Barbie comes with these fun filled features guaranteed to delight and entertain for hours: Grad School Barbie comes out of the box with a big grin on her face that turns into a frown after 2 weeks or her first advisor meeting (whichever comes first). She also has adorable black circles under her delightfully bloodshot eyes.

Comes with two outfits: a grubby pair of blue jeans and 5 year old gap T-shirt, and a floppy pair of gray sweatpants with a matching "I hate my life" T-shirt. Grad School Barbie talks! Just press the button on her left hand and hear her say such upbeat grad school phrases like, "Yes, Professor, It'll be done by tomorrow", "I'd love to rewrite" and "Why didn't I just get a job, I could have been making $40,000 a year by now if I had just started working with a Bachelor's. But noooooo, I chose to further my education, I wish somebody would drop a bomb on the school so that I'd have an excuse to stop working on my degree that's sucking every last drop of life force out of my withered and degraded excuse for a soul..." (9V lithium batteries sold separately)

Grad School Barbie is anatomically correct to teach kids about the exciting changes that come with pursuing a higher education. Removable panels on Barbie's head and torso allow you to watch as her cerebellum fries to a crispy brown, her heart race 150 beats per minute, and her stomach lining gradually dissolve into nothing. Deluxe Barbie comes with specially designed eye ducts. Just add a little water, and watch Grad School Barbie burst into tears at random intervals. Fun for the whole family!

Other accessories include:

Grad School Barbie's Fun Fridge (TM) Well stocked with microwave popcorn, Coca-Cola, Healthy Choice Bologna (99% fat free!),and a small bottle of Mattel Brand Rum (tm).

Grad School Barbie's Medicine Cabinet comes in Fabulous (pepto-bismal) pink and contains Barbie sized bottles of Advil, St. Johns Wort, Zantac, and your choice of three fun anti-anxiety drugs! (Barbie Medicine Cabinet not available without a prescription).

Grad School Barbie's Computer Workstation. Comes with miniature obsolete PC (in pink of course), rickety desk, and over a dozen miniature Mountain Dew cans to decorate your workstation with (Mountain Dew deposit not included in price. Tech support sold separately).

And Grad School Barbie is not alone! Order now and you'll get two of Barbie's great friends! GRADUATE ADVISOR KEN, Barbie's mentor and advisor in her quest for knowledge, higher education and decreased self esteem.

Grad Advisor Ken (tm) comes with a supply of red pens and a permanent frown. Press the button to hear Grad Advisor Ken deliver such wisdom to Barbie as "I need an update on your progress," "I don't think you're ready to defend yet", and "This is no where near ready for publication."

Buy 3 or more dolls, and you can have Barbie's Thesis Committee! (Palm Pilot and tenure sold separately.)

REAL JOB SKIPPER, When Barbie needs to talk, she knows that she can always count on her good friend Real Job Skipper (tm), who got a job after getting her bachelor degree. Press the button to hear Real Job Skipper say, "Sometimes I wish I went for my masters degree" and "Work is so hard! I had to work a half an hour of overtime!" Real Job Skipper's Work Wardrobe and Savings account sold separately.

WARNING: Do not place Grad Student Barbie and Real Job Skipper too close to each other, as there have been several cases of children leaving the room and coming back to find Barbie's hands mysteriously fused to Skipper's throat.

Excited for Thanksgiving Break!!

I can't believe I haven't posted since before Halloween! Time slips away from me too fast. Halloween was a blast. The Chinese Dragon was a hit and the party was really fun. :-)

Getting ready in our psych lab before we left.

Here we are in formation.

I actually baked and decorated these. I am not too domestic so it took a long time and there was a lot of green frosting everywhere.

Since the Triathlon I have gotten back to the trails. I missed them.

I have been running Chino Hills the most.

I love November in California!

These next two pictures were taken from a run I fit in after school in my old stomping grounds (Sycamore Canyon) in Riverside. I used to run these trails everyday until I moved to OC.

The best part about going slow on the trails are the little ones you can take with you.

They did really great for 3 and 6, both completing a tough 4 mile hike. Only had to carry the little one for the last mile or so.

Today was great! I biked to Chino Hills Park from my house in Brea which was about 8 miles. Then I ran/walked 6 miles of trail and biked 8 miles back. I got back home right after it started raining. What a perfect day for pictures. :-)

I really liked the little white flowers on this branch.

This is my favorite time of the year to trail run. It is so pretty here in November. :-)