A Year Ago....

So, to FINALLY continue my back trekking....a year ago is when my trip around the US took place. So, after my round with St. Louis. I did a "wonderful" trip across Kansas...there is nothing in Kansas! Why they put a toll road for you to go through it....gotta make money somehow! After an overnight stay in Colby, KS, I made it to Denver, CO.

I have a wonderful friend from college, Holly, that invited me to stay with her while I was there. First on the list of "to-do's" was eat lunch...I will never have anything that compares to the freshness and true flavors of Denver food! It was amazing!

 After our lunch, we went even higher than the "mile-high" city and hiked the Rockies. It was gorgeous! There was still snow on the ground from snow earlier in the week. It was just beautiful there!

After that, we toured around town and she introduced me to spaghetti squash....another new favorite of mine! Also while I was in Denver, some friends from Charleston were there. So, Thoma and Valerie and I got to spend some time together while we were there. We toured a candy shop and went around downtown Denver. It was great! Hard to leave that place and can't wait to return!

     I decided to make a hotel reservation that night for Salt Lake City, Utah and be ahead of the game. So, I started my trek to Salt Lake by way of Cheyenne, Wyoming. On my way to Wyoming, about 2 hours out of Denver, my alternator decided to die on the car....not a fun problem to have in the middle of nowhere as I like to call it, or Loveland, CO. Four hours later, I had a new alternator (thankfully they had a small Ford dealership there). I headed back on my 9 hour trip to Salt Lake...I just had to make my reservation!

  This caused my trip through Cheyenne to be a lot shorter than it was supposed to! But, I got to see some of the life size boots they are famous for! It was so cool!

    Alright, enough for today.....more to follow later.

OVO!

This weekend was very busy and a blast all at once! I finally made it home to Dalton to see my parents and friends. I made it home late Friday to a nice, warm fire my Dad had made....it was great since it was freezing outside! Saturday morning, I woke up and had brunch with my friend Jennifer and her wonderful family! The clutz in my spilled my coffee as soon as I got it...thankfully it wasn't scalding and didn't burn me or any of the children! I was excused because I was sitting on the "kids" side of the table. The girls told me from then on out, "Don't spill it!" Hilarious in the end. After that I met my friends Courtney and Chris and some new friends in Atlanta. We watched OVO which is Cirque du Soleil! It was great! I loved it, and it being my first time seeing it, I was very impressed! Then, we went to a brazillian steakhouse for dinner and ate our hearts out. It was great spending time with them and laugh til we cried! Sunday, it was church, which was great to see my church family, and lunch with the Carrs. Avery is the smartest girl I know, smarter than me for sure. We had a blast and got "Sweet Treats" from Panera.....only we found out they weren't called "sweet treats" but "Bakery Items" after Matt had gone and ordered a "sweet treat" to add to his meal! Hilarious! Overall, a great weekend and I look forward to the next trip to Dalton to see everyone again and maybe have a little down time! Until next time!

Back to the Gym

Well, after sitting around miserable because I can't run, I decided it was time to get back in the gym! I have been thinking about it for awhile, so I finally got motivated and joined. The doctor told me I was allowed to do eliptical, cycling and swimming after 3 weeks (which will be this Tuesday) but no running. Great thing is, the gym has all three!!! So, now to stay motivated and stay in the gym! The new adventure this week! Along with a new gym membership, I got a new hair color...was going a little fun with red/purple color to peak out underneath the blonde. She did it a little more blonde than I wanted it, but oh well.....it will change again in a few weeks!
     Also, this week, was sad because our dog of almost 14 years was put to sleep. Darla Mae had been with us since we were pre-teens. She had definitely lived a great life and was having a hard time getting around any longer. She was supposed to come stay with me the next few weeks, so Momma had taken Darla to the vet to get pain medicines for her to be able to make the trip to my house. They just knew there wasn't much more they could do. So, now she is just as happy and healthy in doggy heaven. It was a hard day Friday for all of us! But, I have sweet Brady and crazy Beau to keep me busy now.
     I tried out a new church today close to my house. I really enjoyed it. It is different than other churches I have visited, but I liked that about it. I am at the point now, I am just ready to find a church! AND today I turned the heat on in the house.....I am excited about cooler weather, but not looking forward to the cold! Next week is hopefully just a normal week, but I am really looking forward to going home to Dalton, FINALLY, to see all my long lost friends and meet with some college friends in Atlanta on Saturday to see Cirque du Soleil's OVO! Until next time!

What Color is That?

SO, it has been very busy since I last posted. Mom and Dad came in town for Mom's birthday and her 30th college reunion two weekends ago. It was great to spend time with them and utterly hilarious! Mom was bound and determined that the people standing in the alumni section were way too old to be her class......much to her surprise, she had some classmates standing around! I guess Momma just ages well! After traveling to Clinton for the morning/early afternoon, we car "toured" Newberry. I wasn't able to walk too much, so the amount of walking done at PC was enough for me for a bit. Mom, of course being herself, decided I needed to ice my foot....she went into the Clinton Hampton Inn and got me a bag of ice. She is special....and I love her. We then headed back to Columbia. Mom decided on the way back we needed to take the scenic route and find North, SC so we can say we had been to 90 miles southeast of Due West. :)



Momma and I in North, SC



We celebrated Mom's birthday that night with Olive Garden to eat and lots of cupcakes from Cupcake here in Columbia and Dad's totally AMAZING pound cake! (Needless to say I broke the diet....yet somehow still lost weight!). We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out and enjoying each other's company.

The week was my busiest yet with flu shots. I was out of town 3 days of the 5 and worked way over my normal 40 hours! That left me with tons to catch up on at the office when I got back! It was a good week overall and I got to meet some awesome people in satellite locations!

I got an itch to change things in my house this weekend. So, I decided it was FINALLY time to change bathroom colors in my room, as well as my bedroom. After much scrutinizing over the colors, I figured it out, bought the paint, and was ready to go! A friend of mine was amazing and offered to help me paint. After 3 hours Friday, our first coat was done! Light blue with an accent wall in the bathroom and light gray in the bedroom. I spent Friday night with friends just relaxing and letting lose. Saturday, woke up early to see some of the cutest twins in Columbia. Ate some Moe's...which was way overdue, and came back home. My amazing friend came to help me finish the painting. We finished the second coats in about 3 hours as well. When we finished moving all the furniture back and were inspecting our work we noticed something funny. The trimming in the bedroom looked blue......weird. Then looked in the bathroom.....dang it the trim is gray! We somehow, still unbeknownst to us, switched our paint cups and trimmed in the wrong colors! So, we got back to it and fixed our problems. Now, all is painted and looks so good! I bought a new comforter and now just have to decorate the walls!



The new bedroom and comforter...just have to add the wall art!



Other than that, just have been catching up on work and resting. We start a new Bible study this week, which I am excited about too. AND it is halfway point for our weight-loss challenge at work! I am down 16 pounds so far....totally pumped! Hoping to lose that much more in the second half! Pressing through.....until next time.....ciao!

You did what???

   A lot has happened in the world of Lauren since the last post. I got to visit my first satellite location for flu shots in Spartanburg, which was a lot of fun, and then I headed to good ol' Mobile, AL. After working all day Thursday, I drove straight to Mobile and got to visit with all of my besties there and attend a beautiful wedding in Pensacola. The first part of my trip was spent with Nikki and her precious children, Vivi, Luke, and Logan. I was blessed and excited to spend the majority of my Friday with Luke and Logan as Nikki had to work. Logan is 3 months and absolutely precious....but poor baby was sick. Luke is my sweet boy who is so funny. He decided to rename me this weekend to Wanda. We have no idea where it came from, but it brought us all to tears in laughter as he continually called me this. Nikki and I got to have a long-needed "Girls' Night" Friday night. It was great! We had Zia's (one of my fav's) and it wouldn't be a meal with Nikki if we didn't get something free.....she got us a free dessert...AMAZING! After being stuffed there, we went to the mall and did some shopping, then went and saw a movie. It was great to be back with such a close friend. Saturday morning came early and I got to attend my sweet, athletic Vivi's soccer game! She rocked! I was so proud of her.
    After the soccer match, I had to rush to get ready for a wedding of my friend April's in Pensacola. It was gorgeous and I was so happy to see her happy. Plus, it was a beautiful drive to and from Pensacola. After the wedding, I came back to spend time with my other bestie, Tiffany. She and I had a wonderful "Girls' Night" as well with dinner at Bonefish Grill! It rocked! Then we went by Target and got some amazing chocolate chip cookie brownies to make. We allowed the boys to join us and we had a great dessert and catch up time. Sunday, I got to spend with Tiff, Johnathan and the growing twins. They are getting way too big and are talking up a storm! Seems like yesterday Brooklyn and Jacob were being held in my arms as babies. Sunday night, Nikki and her fam, Tiffany and the kids, and Cheryl (another friend) and her kids got together at Olive Garden. We had a blast to catch up and enjoy food......can you see my diet was blown this weekend? Anyway, it was great. Monday I got to go to my old work and surprise everyone and catch up with old co-workers. It was then lunch, scrub purchasing, washing the car and back to Columbia.
    It was a busy long weekend, but great fun! I miss them so much! Then, it was back to work Tuesday to play catch up on everything I had missed. It was a crazy day. Tuesday afternoon, I had an appointment with Ortho because my foot was not getting better from hurting, but only worse. Well, it seems like I should probably listen to my body when it says I am hurt and not be stubborn and go run further/do the Mud Run injured. Seems I have ruptured my plantar fascia. Rare to do, and I was like,what the heck?!?! But, glad I have figured out why it is hurting. Now I am on strict restrictions with a "sexy" sock to wear to bed that lifts my foot in a very awkward angle (no sleep last night because of it), no weight bearing, no running, heel supports and a horrible injection of medications that I swear was given to me so that I will hurt worse and obey orders. Anyway, that has been my busy week in a "brief" discription.
    In this next week, I will be out of town 4 of the 7 days for satellite flu shots, so I am hoping I can walk appropriately. And the whole fam is coming into town for Mom's b-day....so excited! That is about it.....until next time!

Anniversaries.....

Lately there has been a lot of anniversaries going on. A year ago over the past few weeks and the upcoming weeks a lot of major changes happened in my life, from ending my long-term relationship, becoming unemployeed, and moving from Mobile, AL. This all started the beginning of my "new life" as I like to call it and a heavy start of my adventures! I could not have been more blessed and watched God lead me more blatantly than in the past year. I have traveled the United States and seen His beauty everywhere, and really gotten to explore more than I ever imagined of the US, with a lot of stories to go along with it! I have a wonderful job with Johns Hopkins that I never could've imagined, it is truly a dream. I have run a 10k, biked a 15 mile bike race, and done a Mud Run which is more running/biking than I ever thought I would complete on my own, better yet races! I have gotten to travel more and vacation more than I could imagine to fun and different places. It has truly been an amazing year that I could not have ever imagined or dreamt of on my own! I could not have imagined all of these things last year at this time. That being said, on to the present!
    This weekend I went to Greenville to visit my vacation partner, Tiffany. She and I had gone to Disney World back in June, which was a blast. So, at that time, we decided we were vacation partners and started planning our next adventure. My friends, Ben and Leslie, moved to Australia after they were married in July. SO, my thought was, what perfect timing to go to Australia to visit such great friends and get to tour Australia as well! Tiffany was down with the idea. Sorry for the tangent.......

We sat side by side doing the same thing on our
 own computers to assure we were going together...

         SO, after watching tickets over the past few months, we decided it was time to buy! So, after a WONDERFUL dinner at her mom's house, we made Jello and bought our Australia tickets! It was very scary and brought much panic to do, but it was done and so exciting!!

OMG!!!! We are going to Australia!!!

  

         After we got over the excitement that we were REALLY going to Australia, we celebrated by watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail....classic. The next morning, we woke up and made breakfast, then carved pumpkins. I carved a PA in my pumpkin.....creative, I know....and Tiffany did an awesome job of carving a surgeon with her surgery supplies from the hospital....it was awesome. And Greg, Tiffany's boyfriend, carved a pumpkin with just a face....which we figured out later on made the perfect patient! Overall, it was a great 24 hours in Greenville! The rest of the weekend was very relaxing and now onto craziness of October and flu shot traveling!

The patient, the surgeon, and the PA

Overcoming Obstacles and Exceeding!

So, the USMC Mud Run was yesterday and I am proud to say my team and I completed all of the obstacles and the full race! It was amazing! We began the trek to the Leatherneck (the name of the course in Sandy Run, SC) about an hour before we were to sign in with directions in hand. As we are almost to the exit, we see signs saying the exit is closed. Really? Surely it is just for Mud Run participants open. Oh no, it is fully closed. So we are re-routed to the net exit 4 miles south. We get to that exit and see that they have loped us around to the "back" of the line....approximately a 2 to 3 hour traffic standstill. We, at that point, had exactly 40 minutes to check-in. Well, the navigation skills of Ricky did us good and he found us a short-cut through a dirt road....very bumpy I might add, but amazingly quick! It got us within 1.2 miles of the entrance to the Mud Run. Well, after 20 minutes and 0.2 miles of progress, we decided we needed to get out of the car and make it to the starting line for our start time. We had 20 minutes until our start time and were supposed to sign-in an hour early. So, we pulled off to the side, parked and headed to the entrance. We managed to have a bathroom break, check-in, and start all on time, and maybe early!

    So, we began. Katie, Lindsey, Ricky, and I began the run. We got to the first obstacle...3 5 foot walls to "jump" over. We learned this course was all about team work. First obstacle down, on to the second. Sliding down a pole that is parallel to the ground. We were being yelled at by Marine men at this time...Katie and I didn't like it. Third obstacle, a rope swing....forget any skin in between your legs from then on out. We hit our first mud pit and we could forget hearing (mud all in the ear canal) or any clean part of your body from that part on! But we were so pumped and continued on. I would have to say the walls that were at least 20 feet high were the scariest, and for some reason they decided to have them right after a mud pit. Ricky and Lindsey were pros and completed the entire mud pit....Katie and I got stuck and completed it in shallower mud, yet still covered! We finished all 32 obstacles and got to the finish line approximately 2 hours after start time! We were so pumped!

    After we finished the race, we made sure to get our t-shirts and had a random guy take our picture for us.

 Then Katie, Ricky, and Lindsey went to the back of the fire truck to get sprayed. The line for the "showers" got short, so I lined up. After 2 showers for all of us, we were all clean enough to walk our mile back to the car. So, we walked back as our "cool down" and got in the car to drive back to the Leathernack to finish cleaning up and changing clothes.

We, then, had to wait on Lindsey's roommates to finish the race. In the meantime, I saw some people from work who had just finished.

We left the Mud Run around 7:30 and headed to Five Guy's for a celebration dinner! I know, against the diet but I had only eaten breakfast and was STARVING! Then, conveniently next door was Cold Stone....no worries I got the smallest size and had strawberries...that's diet right? Then, we dropped Katie and Ricky off at their house and Lindsey and her roommate Caroline headed back to my house. We took the longest showers of our lives because we were still so muddy and then collapsed!

     Overall, an amazing day! I am so glad I stuck to it and did it! We grew closer as friends and family! Ricky was definitely the MVP because we could not have gotten up the 15 foot over unders without his lifting and strategic planning! I am ready for next year's! Our time was 2:09:13 and were in 2728 place overall and 1188 in our category. Which, I have to say that is pretty good overall and for the first time not knowing what we got ourselves in to! Now, on to the next adventure!!!!