House update!

The house is coming up pretty fast. Concrete has been poured and the framing is in progress. Of course it apparently is also hurricane season here in Lansing as we have been having monsoon rains. Apparently, we're having a pond in our backyard, too...

That will be great for the boys. Wet, muddy, stinky dogs in new house...awesome, no? Stupid rain, go away. Normally I love rain, but that's enough, really, knock it off.

I'm telling myself big storms are a token of good luck when building your home, kind of like rain on your wedding day. I say this because our friends Josh and Candi who are also buidling endured some pretty heavy rain during their framing and everything else has been smooth sailing ever since and their house is looking beautiful. First stages of denial? Perhaps.

Here are a couple more of the framing. Here you are seeing the front of the house. Front door, little entryway window and living room window.

And a direct frontal ;)

I love the backdrop in this picture. It looks surreal :)

I have yet to personally see the framing but the boyfriend has. He gets to check things out while doing his community policing.

Playmakers is the DEVIL!

Just as I had previously thought before my lapse in judgement and bought a pair of shoes from them. They weren't willing to work with me at all and pretty much had a "tough luck" attitude towards the situation. They SUCK and I will be purchasing all running shoes from Gazelle in Grand Rapids from now on. I won't be buying anything from Playmakers and I encourage you all to do the same! (Yes, I realize the two people reading this live in Phoenix and Grand Rapids, so this doesn't even apply but still...)

Apparently everything on the house front has to be chosen by the end of next week so I have had zero running time this week. I plan to at least get in a long run this weekend, hopefully.

Back to it

Saturday 7/23 was my first day back to running. I still felt a little tightness in my left achilles area but figured/was hopeful that since I took off 20 WHOLE DAYS I would be good and strong. I ran these at the Y because I didn't want to run away from home then have awful pain a few miles out and end up having to limp my sorry bootay home.

I started out nice and slow, around an 11:00/mile. It felt good. I felt strong. I wasn't running at my normal pace but that's ok, I was just happy to be running again. I did 4 miles and called it good.

What I think the issue is is my shoes, again. My last shoes I ordered online and ended up ordering a size too small. This is what I think originally caused all my feet issues. With my next pair, my current ones, I went to our local running store Playmakers. He fitted me and we did the treadmill video analysis yada yada yada. He seemed like he knew what he was talking about so when he put me in a pair that fit a little loose he reassured me I wanted them to feel like that. Considering I put myself in way too small of shoes, I trusted him and went with it. Ended up purchasing them, a hundred buckaroos later. They're return policy is 30 days. Well, in those next 30 days I didn't get much running in and didn't get a chance to test them out properly. My bad. Since then, I have determined they are WAY TOO BIG and I think this is causing my current achilles pain. I even tried inserts and they still just don't feel right. I am going to Playmakers to try and work something out. I don't need to return them but a deal on new shoes might help. Let's see what kind of business Playmakers really is, and see how important customer satisfaction is to them. I will report back.

Last night I ran in my old brooks. These were the shoes that changed the running game for me. My first loves, if you will. They're filthy, worn out, and old but I love 'em. I felt like I was running on clouds. It was amazing how easy it felt. I think I am sticking to my trusted brooks from now on. We get each other, like not many couples do. For Dances with Dirt coming up in September I need a few pairs of shoes anyway, that helps soften the pain from spending yet more money on running STUFF.

House stuff is CRAZY right now and kind of stressful. Cement has been poured and framing is in process. Pics to come!

Ground Breaking News!

Approximately 8 minutes ago we broke ground! Yippee!! "We" is used loosely as Chris and I are clearly uncapable of such a task.

Happy 3rd of July!

Our festivities took place Sunday the 3rd instead of Monday the 4th. My fam - Mami, Dad, June, Anna, and the Gabs all came to casa Kuhlman for the day. My mom brought all the fix-ins for a Mexican feast to celebrate this wonderful country I call my home. Mexican on Independence day is totally acceptable, after all America is a melting pot folks. 


The day consisted of a little bit of this...

A beautiful day with family, good food, good times.... making memories that really count!

Quartz or Granite

Sure, picking out ALL the details in your home sounds like fun but man can it be a little overwhelming?! It seems like we are meeting with a different contractor for the house every night. I mean, obviously not every night because Chris works nights so that would be impossible but you get what I am saying. I think we are set with the cabinets. White, shaker style, full overlay <--- don't I sound like I know what I am talking about. It's funny how the internet works like that. They look something like this:

And our kitchen will look nothing like this:

We will opt for darker floors and more of a greige wall color. Also, our countertops won't be fugly. We will have stainless appliances as well as the recessed lights.

Speaking of countertops, my ideal is a play on Carrara Marble. I don't want marble because it isn't practical in a kitchen and isn't practical for our bank account. We hear quartz is the new thing, with its' maintenance free rep and built in microban. Quartz and granite run about the same, so it's basically just a matter of preference. Here is the quartz version of my dream countertop:



Me-ooow

This color is from the Zodiaq brand and all the countertop and cabinet people have told us if going with quartz, Cambria is the way to go. Cambria doesn't offer this color. So what to do? Go with the lesser brand in order to get the right color or forego quartz all together and attempt to get this color in granite? Decisions, decisions....

A Cambria rep came in to town and met with us to show us some of their new colors. Nothing really sold me. I figure if I am going to spend the extra moolah I want to love it. I want it to whisper sweet nothings in my ear. I want it to... you get the idea.

On the housefront, we have YET to breakground. Waiting on some stupid permit. Doesn't Eaton County know that I am living with my in-laws...get with the program EC!

Bad News Bear

Just when I was finally starting to get my groove back the running injury Gods struck me down.

The past week I was loving running (which I hadn't really been since I started training). I was actually looking forward to my runs and was feeling pretty dang strong throughout them.

Saturday morning I woke bright and early naturally, around 5:23 a.m. Had a cup of coffee, got my gear on, and mentally prepared myself for the 7 I was about to take on. Before I started my left achilles was a little achey, I didn't think much of it.

So I was off. Around mile 2 my left achilles was pretty achey. Nothing happened, I didn't trip or step wrong or anything like that but BAM! right around the 2 mile mark it hurt BAD. I thought to myself "this might be bad and maybe you should stop" or "maybe you're just being a wuss and this is a mind game your head is playing just to stop running". Obviously, I went with thought #2 and ran another 5 miles. The pain was so bad it caused me to change the way I naturally run. They always say "if an injury forces you to run differently - STOP RUNNING. So I made it a point to not let it change the way I run and pushed through the pain and tried my best to run the way I always do.

Once back home I filled a bucket with ice and stuck my whole foot in. Iced it for about 20 minutes. After I iced I was immediately limping and knew this wasn't good. All day Saturday my foot/achilles/ankle was pretty tender and I couldn't put all my weight on it. So that was Saturday.

Sunday I woke up and it was bruised and super swollen and now I could put even less weight on it. Needless to say, I called off the 3 miler I had planned for that morning. I iced on and off all day, kept it elevated, and wrapped it nice and tight. That night a friend of Veej's came over, Lindsey who is an RN. She felt me up and said I definitely sprained/strained (can't remember which, one is muscle and one is tendon) my achilles and need to stay off it. Not so much surprised, I asked for how long - perhaps a day? or two? To which she responded at least 4 weeks!!!!! She went on how it's better to treat an injury at this level and be off for a short time versus keep pushing my body and end up rupturing my achilles and not be able to run for a LONG time...BLAH BLAH BLAH :(

4 weeks! Are you crazy? I have a marathon in October. I thought to myself maybe this whole Registered Nurse thing is a fluke and she doesn't know what she's talking about. But as I limped away in disbelief I thought maybe she was onto to something.

I am super bummed. I am going to ice, and stretch, and strengthen, and get better. I am giving myself two weeks off and we will go from there.

Chris is ready to kill me, he already thinks I push myself too far and now with this...YIKES! Although, this morning he did tell me "Babe, even though you have a bum foot I still think you're beautiful" :). Doesn't get much sweeter than that!