redecorating

“I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself.

For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness

is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition.”
Martha Washington

Hi All!

I am pleased to report that as some of my activity restrictions are being lifting, life is starting to return to normal around here… which is a good thing because I was starting to go a little bonkers not being allowed to exercise (We’ll just say it didn’t agree with the PTSD and that I’m happy to be sleeping through the night again).

Currently, I have returned to work and survived my first full week back including one hellish weekend shift. I have also resumed swimming! In fact, at the two week mark from surgery some super cool peeps from the tri club and I went to the lake to celebrate my first day off swimming restriction. The only downside was that it was windy out and the water was choppy which definitely did not agree with my motion sickness. The good news is, it definitely encouraged me to kick harder and swim faster!

Speaking of which, I also am thrilled to inform you that I have started an Open Water Swim Training Program through the Lake Quassapaug Sailing Center. Now I get to swim on my Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings off with a bunch of swimmers who are far superior to me. On the bright side, they give me a head start. Plus, they are all really fun people… hilarious actaully… I have gone out with them twice already, and I feel like it has helped a lot with getting used to the wetsuit. In fact, I have to be honest that open water swimming has really grown on me. *gasp* I think I may even prefer it to the pool at this point. The lake water is cool (ok COLD) and refreshing, and you can’t beat the scenery. Today I swam in the pool for the first time since surgery and the water just felt really warm and gross in comparison (at least upon first getting in anyway…)

My newest home for swimming… you can go ahead and be jealous now…

Aside from starting to swim again I also spent a little time on the bike trainer. Then yesterday I went for my first post op run (more on that to come… I decided to just go big. After all it was my three weeks out from surgery marker!)

For all of you wondering what I did with the rest of my free time (riiiight… you’re thinking “What free time?!“, but trust me, I had lots of it….) So to keep from climbing the walls, I decided to finally order my wedding photos and redecorate the living room. It all started because I found a great piece of furniture to hide all of Adam’s cycling gear… which has been slowly taking over the house, especially the dining room table. Then I decided that instead of trying to hide of his stuff (because I’m realizing it’s futile… he’s never going to be the kind of guy who puts things away…ever… it’s just not who he is) I would try to camouflage it instead. I know! Genius, right?

Here are my efforts:

Our beachy wedding photos and newly wed pillows 🙂

The hubby’s new bike gear storage with new bike themed decor…

And our nifty new clock

I think the hubs was both touched and impressed by my efforts to incorporate his love of cycling into our living space. Of course, he was not quite impressed enough to actually use his new storage area, but at least I have a place to put all his stuff when I clean up after him. I also believe he was happy to see our wedding photos finally hanging… although I bet he was secretly sad to see all the photos of the dogs go.

So apart from my run yesterday which we will discuss in a separate post, that is all the shenanigans I have to update you on for now. I have surprisingly been doing a good job of laying low and keeping out of trouble… with the exception of yesterday’s run. In my defense, though, I was told that my activity level should be dependent on my pain, and I really don’t have any. Plus, it’s not like I have been lifting anything which is the really important restriction. After all, as much as I love and adore The Bloggess, I don’t want a Who trying to escape from my belly button. 😉

Stay tuned!

“I got 99 problems but my bench ain’t one”

Ironically inaccurate for me at the moment, but still by far the funniest thing I’ve read all day…

Borrowed for the Spartan Chicked Group

This may shock and amaze you all, but I have actually been a very good girl and HAVE NOT been sneaking in any workouts involving my shoulder … unless you count moving furniture, but I did use “moving men” (it’s so nice when you can find another use for your exercise equipment…oh wait… haha). I also had Adam and G-dawg do the heavy lifting, not that I even had to ask. Can you believe they didn’t trust me? They know me too well 🙂

So this whole not working out multiple times a day is already getting expensive! I have WWWAAAAYYYY too much free time… time I used this weekend to rearrange my bedroom furniture. I decided in the process that I needed to replace my tall dresser (you know how this works…) so I headed to the local flea market and found THIS AMAZING piece!

For anyone who doesn’t know, 99% percent of my furniture has come from tag sales, flea markets, and- in some cases- the curb. At first, it was more out of necessity, but now it’s mostly for fun. With this piece I got lucky because it didn’t even need to be refinished… although I do actually like the refinishing too (especially my paisley dresser- so proud of it!)

Anyway, my bedroom is now becoming my favorite room of the house! I’m so thrilled with how it’s FINALLY coming together. Although, I ddefinitely need to get back to training before I spend anymore money. haha

In an effort to stay out of trouble (financially at least) this morning I went to the gym and did an easy 16 minutes on the stair climber followed by a few minutes on the elliptical with just legs. I wasn’t feeling that awesome, and I’m guessing that may have had to do with the muscle relaxants. I just wanted to do a little bit to keep from getting edgy. I’m hoping that by next week I may be able to start easing into running, but for now I think it’s probably safer to minimize the exercising and stick to legs only.

In other news, I got a letter today from the YES Endurance people. Remember a million years ago (ok… less than a year ago) I did their trail series and was COMPLETELY DEVASTATED when I completed the 4th race, in spite of the flu, and never got my finisher medal?

Yeah, well it just came in the mail today. Better late than never? I won’t even bring up the fiasco with the points series… Anyway, they offered me a free entry to any of their races as compensation for the inconvenience… which I think was a pretty nice gesture.

That’s all I have to report for now. I am super grateful for the happy pills that not only cured my horrendous spasm, but also have been keeping me relaxed enough not to be climbing up the walls…. otherwise I’m pretty sure I’d be homicidal by this point. I wonder if I get can get a script to take them on all my rest days. haha

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I know one lady who did! Betsy from The Everyday Warrior earned her orange today at her first Tough Mudder. She not only completed the event, but also raised funds for the very worthy Wounded Warrior Project. Woooohoooo! You go girl! Be sure to spot by her blog and leaves her some props! She has definitely earned them!