I have been pretty busy since my last post…some running, a little spinning, cooking and lots of fun things with friends!  I’ll spare you all of the details so you aren’t reading for an hour but I’ll summarize the highlights of the past two weeks.

I had my 12 week post-op appointment on the 16th and I am cleared for all activities!  (Yes, even swimming…although I won’t be doing that any time soon :)…)  I still have to do PT but now I am working on strengthening my arm, rather than range of motion, so I’m doing free weights and several other exercises which are much more fun than my old ones.

Moving on to training….two weekends ago, JMR and I ran the first race in the Frostbite series, a five-part race series in Forest Park.  Of course that morning the skies had opened up and it was snowing like crazy!  After debating back and forth, and JMR clearing off my car, we decided to go for it and drive to the race.   When we arrived at the park I couldn’t believe how much snow we had gotten in such a short amount of time!  Fortunately the snow plows had come by and plowed the running route so we were good to go.

JMR ran the 7.4 miles at a very speedy sub 8 minute pace, while I gutted it out to hold on to a 9:30 pace.  I have some work to do to get my speed back – at least we got it done!

On the cooking front I have been making all kinds of new recipes and loving it…from Egg muffins, to meatloaf muffins (are you sensing a muffin theme?)…

Yum!

…to breakfasts with homemade sweet potato hash (I hand shredded those potatoes – love my Julienne peeler. I couldn’t figure out my food processor and didn’t want to lose a hand attempting it)

I also took a painting class with some of my girlfriends, called ‘Wine and Canvas‘, where the instructor walks you through step by step how to draw the picture on display that evening while you follow along and drink wine.

It was actually pretty stressful in the beginning for me (even with the wine, ha).  Painting is hard, especially painting straight lines!  I think I prefer sketching but it was still fun and we had a great time….although I’m not sure how I feel about my finished product….I wasn’t thinking when I picked those colors, it doesn’t go very well with my color scheme in my condo!

Yeah…my lines are definitely crooked.

JMR also surprised me with a new mini Christmas tree!  I have a pre-lit one that is six feet tall but it was so cheap you can see right through it and it just isn’t worth the work to set it up.  I was very surprised when I came home from work one night to find it all set up and decorated!

So pretty.

While I’ve been busy, busy, busy….Patrick has been busy napping.

Well, that’s about it!  Merry Christmas!

He loved wearing that light up necklace.  I kid.