New Do

I did it. I cut all my hair off. It was SO freeing. I have been grinning ever since and feel so great. Startingly, I even managed to turn a few heads at the mall!! (imagine my surprise, I don't thing that has ever happened before, or at least I never noticed...I finally ducked into the bathroom to see if my fly was down or something was stuck to my shirt....)

Here's the proof! Scroll down for a "before" photo at my friend's brother's wedding. Long and boring. Now I have fun hair!!!!!!!!

This is the haircut I always wanted but didn't

know it. I am armed with my Rough Paste and Volumizing Lotion...so it's going to be a fun weekend. I can make it sleep or tousled or messy or even stick straight up in all directions! It's great!

And hey, maybe I'll even lose a 1/4 lb more at my weigh in on Tuesday!...or at least a few ounces!

Christmas all around

Well, I have officially gotten into the Christmas season. My first christmas tree is up in our house and I love it and all it's scandinavian splendor. We already probably have enough ornaments to outfit two trees! We also go the train set up around the tree, but we are short a few sets of tracks to make a full circle...but we can go back and forth and the cat loves it. We also gave our skiers a place of honor. Nevermind that half of one of the string of lights at the bottom has already stopped working, I still love the feeling the tree gives to the house and how it looks through the window when you drive up the driveway.












I also got together with some friends and make christmas cookies and frosted and decorated them. It was the most fun I'd had in a long time!! I think I could be a professional cookie baker if I could avoid eating the bits!

Frosty, the Runner

Well, I did it. I finally got over my I don't want to run outside in the winter weather because it's cold and I'm not ready for winter blues and had my first great cold weather run. I ran a beautiful 7 miles down the Gateway trail. Getting out the door was another story. I dragged out my ski bags which hold most of my cold weather running/skiing gear and basically made a big running clothing heap in the basement and still never found my favorite Craft long underwear top (but had the bottoms), nor my favorite running/skiing jacket (just plain gone), but I did rediscover my favorite blue snowflake hat (the one my sister always tries to steal!) and my favorite aqua running turtle neck and fleece lined running tights, smartwool socks, Craft sports bra liner, and super awesome running glove/mitten combos. Those gloves have to be the best thing I ever bought.

I was out early enough noone else was braving the weather yet and I was surrounded for the most part by trees on the trail so the wind was minimal. However, the wind was pretty nippy on my way out, but on the way back it was almost non existant even though I could see the snow blowing sideways. I did wish I had my face mask in the end....but I survived unscathed. In the end my hat was frozen to my forehead, my eyelashes had turned into icicles, and I had frost forming on my chin and cheeks. Here's proof of my frosty face!

Along the way I discovered a few things. First, my Garmin does not like to work properly in cold weather. I ended up stuffing it up my sleeve to keep it warm and working. I think I'll create a Garmin cozy for it. I also discovered that I really like running in a few fresh inches of snow because it cushions every step I take. Nothing hurt at all or even get twingy on my run. I felt like I was running on cusions and pillows the whole way and when I had to run under the bridges and overpases where the snow couldn't reach the ashpalt was cold and hard and jolting.

All in all, it was a great starter winter run. I'm happy I finally began my half marathon training. January 26th will be here before I know it, and next comes SLC in April. I also discovered that if you are covered in icicles and frost that you start melting instantly and leave little puddles of water around the house. But Pinot loved drinking the drips.

DH and I also picked up our first marital christmas tree! I am so excited. I have been collecting scandinavian christmas ornaments and decorations my whole life and I am finally going to have my own Swedish tree like my family had growing up. We also have our first train set from my parents to set up around the base of our tree, another family tradition. We don't have the whole village yet, but that will come in time. The christmas tree almost fit inside my ski box...but not quite, just about a foot too long! We thought the car looked very festive. We braved the winter storm we got today and managed to get to Minneapolis and back, not ending up in a ditch, unlike many of our other road patrons. Why people who own large cars need to emphasize their apparent importance and idiocy by driving 60 mph during the first snow storm of the year befor the plows have cleared the freeways while the rest of us are driving 30-45 I will never understand.

And, in keeping with Christmas cheer, DH had a great time snow blowing our 'new and improved' driveay that he worked so hard to smooth out. (The old pieces of the middle of our driveway are currently in a huge pile in the garage. Now that the snow is here we'll have to be more aggressive at slowly dumping them in dumpsters so we can park in the garage!) We inherited a gently used snow blower from a friend, as well as a leaf blower. As the proud new owners of a lawnmower, snowblower, and a leaf blower...we're ready for just about anything. Here it is! (Mom, this photo's for you!-don't mind the closed eyes)

As for the weight loss, I officially re-joined weight watchers this past week to lose the 11 lbs I've gained. So, I'm on the right track. It's been a LONG time since I religiously counted points so it's been a bit of an adjustment, but we'll see how I did on Tuesday. I'm sort of pretending I'm joining for the first time and it's been about 3 years since I made lifetime...so it's sort of is. I'm just happy to be moving in the right direction.

One more photo...DH learned how to use the timer function on my camera. So mom, you can see where in the house our tree is!