Mileage Monday

Running stats for the week of June 23rd - June 29th... I'm officially getting burnt out with my work schedule. I think I finally hit my breaking point on Thursday evening when my boss an I were at work until almost midnight. PHEW! I miss having a life... running, keeping up with any kind of school work, my sweet Remi, and most importantly my husband who I probably only see 10% of the time. Don't get my wrong... I love my job, but the LONG hours and working every day may just be the death of me.

Because of my crazy schedule I am seriously thinking about getting up earlier in the day to get my workouts in. I'm definitely not gaining any weight since I am moving around a lot and hardly find the time to eat, but I can tell I'm losing my strength and endurance from not doing my usual workouts. I am NOT a morning person, but I'm getting home so late at night and am so exhausted that not much else is happening besides me crashing.

Anyway... here are the amount of steps I did this week just walking around Aspen Trace, along with the miles that equaled and the calories burned.

Monday, June 23rd, 2014 - 9,850 steps / 3.2 miles / 140 calories

Tuesday, June 24th, 2014 - 12,159 steps / 3.9 miles / 186 calories

Wednesday, June 25th, 2014 - 7,366 steps / 2.4 miles / 131 calories

Thursday, June 26th, 2014 - 11,126 steps / 3.6 miles / 165 calories

Friday, June 27th, 2014 - 7,840 steps / 2.5 miles / 117 calories

Saturday, June 28th, 2014 - 7,688 steps / 2.5 miles / 112 calories

Sunday, June 29th, 2014 - 5,405 steps / 1.7 miles / 66 calories

Totals for the week : 61,434 steps / 19.8 miles / 917 calories

Photo a Day Challenge : Week #25

Day 22 - Growing (my resident's tomato plants are finally starting to grow up)

Day 23 - In This Moment (painting pottery with my residents)

Day 24 - What June Looks Like

Day 25 - Sun Flare

Day 26 - Dreaming

Day 27 - Loving (my new obsession is Ginger Snaps Jewelry)

Day 28 - Bed (searching for a new blanket for our bed since a doodle tore a hole in our old one)

Butterfly Release

One of the best things about my new job is thinking up fun activities for my residents to be a part of. One of our most recent was a butterfly exhibit so the residents could watch the change that occurs for a butterfly to turn into... well a butterfly.

We bought a kit from Insect Lore that came with 4 giant caterpillars... EWWWW!

 

The caterpillars came to us in a somewhat frozen state... but once they warmed up they started moving all around and eating whatever food was in the jar with them.

After three days they climbed up to the top of their jar, attached themselves to it, and started making their cocoons.

 

They then literally "hung" around for the next 10 days or so... while we patiently waited for them to hatch out into the world!

 

And then it happened... all 4 cocoons turned a very dark color and soon beautiful butterflies were making their way out into the world! It was super exciting for myself and the residents.

 

The butterflies lived with us for about 7 days and the residents watched them eat watermelon and flutter around.

Unfortunately, one of our butterflies died during its short stay with us. We had a burial for the sweet fella.

 

Finally it was time for the release. All our residents made their way outside on a very hot and muggy day to send them off in style! It was a great moment to watch our three sweet butterflies make their way into the world!

I would definitely recommend doing this with any age group. I was very intrigued with this activity!

Mileage Monday

Running stats for the week of June 16th - June 22nd... there was not time to run this week with everything going on. I have been playing around with the idea of starting to train for another half marathon, but nothing serious since I know my legs could go from good to bad at a moments notice. Like I wrote last week I have been tracking my steps since I walk a lot during work. WHOA! I couldn't believe how many steps I got in some days!

Monday, June 16th, 2014 - 8,374 steps

Tuesday, June 17th, 2014 - 6,526 steps

Wednesday, June 18th, 2014 - 8,105 steps

Thursday, June 19th, 2014 - 3,146 steps

Friday, June 20th, 2014 - 13,176 steps

Saturday, June 21st, 2014 - 3,511 steps

Sunday, June 22nd, 2014 - 3,321 steps

Total steps taken this week : 46,159 steps

Photo a Day Challenge : Week #24

I'm sorry that I am behind in my posting... it was a busy week at work and then I went home to see my parents for the weekend. I'm just now getting a chance to play catch up... so here you go :)

Day 15 - Lovely (hope all the father's out there had a lovely Dad's Day)

Day 16 - In The Shadows (Remi has claimed his spot under my desk)

Day 17 - Peaceful

Day 18 - Quirky (Dan and his boonie hats)

Day 19 - Habit (Remi has a bad habit of stealing residents tissues during therapy dog visits)

Day 20 - Yay! (it was bring your dog to work day)

Day 21 - Here I Am (at Grandma's house)

Remington's Rundown

Hey Doodle Lovers! It's Remington Bear here!

Mom hasn't been doing very well with keeping up on the blogging, so I decided I would take over to help her out this week. She has been working a lot lately and hasn't even had much time to spend with me! That is an absolute crime! I mean look at this handsome face!

Since Mom got a new job she told me that I will be working more than just my once a week therapy dog visit at Greenwood Village South. I will actually be coming to work with her a few days each week. I have been waiting for the facility she works at to be approved by the state so they can bring in more residents before I start coming. It has been a long wait, but Mom and I are happy to report that last week her facility passed inspection and I will started my first visit on Tuesday of this week!! YAY! Because of this, Mom has been doubling up on a few things so she doesn't constantly have to be dragging stuff back and forth from home to work since I'll be with her quite often.

Here's an overview of some of my new goodies I've gotten recently for when I start working at Aspen Trace!

Some new bandanas :)

And of course one embroidered with my name on it!!!

A new bed to rest in...

A new water bowl!

And a baby gate so I can hang out in Mom's office while she is doing activities with the residents, but of course still keep my eye on her.

It's a hard life around here I tell you!

Mom said I didn't do too bad on my first visit. I met all the residents and got acquainted with the building. I did bark at all the new sounds I was hearing and Mom said I have to make sure to work on that, but she didn't expect me to be perfect right off the bat.

As you can see I have made sure to stake my claim of the spot right under Mom's desk!

Time to sign off... WIGGLES!

~Remington Bear~

Mileage Monday

Running stats for the week of June 9th - June 15th... Well folks... I think we finally had a breakthrough. I didn't get to run much this week because of my crazy schedule, but when the weekend came around and we had such wonderful weather I knew I had to get out there and see how the knees felt. Much to my surprise, after 4 months of doing very little running I had my first pain free run on Saturday! I couldn't believe it! And I didn't have any pain the day after either! YAY! On Sunday I decided to test the ol' knees out again to see how they felt and besides a few twinges here and there I felt amazing. I even was able to run at my normal pace, which hasn't happened in a very long time! I'm so thankful! I hope that slowly I can get myself back into shape and sign up for a few summer races here and there, but I'm making sure not to push myself too hard. Timing is everything.

Also, with my new job I have been curious about how much walking I'm doing on a daily basis. The building I work at is huge and I am walking all over the place most days. So... I got myself a decent pedometer and I will start tracking my steps daily to see how active I am. I read you should do 10,000 steps a day. I'm excited to see what my totals are :)

Monday, June 9th, 2014 - REST DAY!

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014 - REST DAY!

Wednesday, June 11th, 2014 - REST DAY!

Thursday, June 12th, 2014 - REST DAY!

Friday, June 13th, 2014 - REST DAY!

Saturday, June 14th, 2014 - Ran 2 miles / Walked 1.87 miles with Remi / Stretch

Sunday, June 15th, 2014 - Ran 2 miles / Stretch

Total miles ran this week : 4 miles

I am so excited to get back into running mode!!!!!

Photo a Day Challenge : Week #23

Day 8 - T Is For... (turtle)

Day 9 - We Live Here (almost)

Day 10 - Flying

Day 11 - The Beginning (of a beautiful relationship)

Day 12 - Pastel (barbershop quartet)

Day 13 - Simply (I simply love this guy)

Day 14 - Cross

Photo a Day Challenge : Week #22

 

Day 1 - Joy (there truly are no words to tell you the joy this dog brings us)

 

 

Day 2 - Doing

 

 

Day 3 - Family

 

 

Day 4 - Ordinary (morning at our house)

 

 

Day 5 - 11 o'clock (Exercise Bingo rocked my world)

 

 

Day 6 - Adventure (first time using the popcorn machine)

 

 

Day 7 - Pattern (Remi sporting his new bandana)

Mileage Monday... a day late!

Running stats for the week of May 26th - June 1st ... I am still struggling pretty badly with my running. Yes, I'm so much better than what I was a few months ago, but my knees are still giving me fits. I try to run a few miles every week, but I continue to deal with chronic pain. Uhhhhhgggg! Even on days that I just take Remi on a walk, I will end up hurting either during or afterward. It is frustrating to say the least. I have started to wonder if it is time to give up running all together and focus my energy on something else, but for me there is no other workout/stress reliever like it. I also can't help but wonderful if there is something more serious going on that is causing the pain to persist.

 

Monday, May 26th, 2014 - REST DAY!

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014 - 2 mile run / 1 mile cool down walk with Remi / Stretch

Wednesday, May 28th, 2014 - 100 push ups / 100 sit ups / Stretch

Thursday, May 29th, 2014 - REST DAY! / Stretch

Friday, May 30th, 2014 - REST DAY!

Saturday, May 31st, 2014 - 1.5 mile walk with Remi

Sunday, June 1st, 2014 - 2 mile walk with Remi

Total miles ran this week : 2 miles

Photo a Day Challenge - May Recap

It's been a crazy month of May, but I am thankful for many blessings that came my way!

 

 

I'm also thankful that summer time has finally arrived!