Annual Christmas Picture...

~ Merry Christmas From The Arnold Family~

Tucson Half Marathon

I did it! I ran the entire 13.1 without stopping, walking, or dying!!! There were times when it was exciting, not fun at all, and other times where I wanted to hitch a ride with the passing cars. I thought I would do a recap of each mile...

Mile 1: Ok so it's frikin freezing and I just had to pee in a bush but I am doin good!

Mile 2: Still very very cold...so thankful I wore a long sleeve shirt under my Nike dri fit. At least my knees are numb, though, so I can't feel when they start to hurt.

Mile 3: Ok so I lost Jenny and Kristin...must catch up to them. I spent the rest of this mile doing so.

Mile 4: I am back with Jenny and Kristin...but of course they are running too fast for me!

Mile 5: Found my pace and also that I may have a blister brewing on the ball of my left foot:-(

Mile 6: Yup that's definitely a blister...thankfully there was some Xood(Gatorade type stuff) to make me feel better. I will end up running the rest of the race with my left toes slightly curled under so that I don't put as much pressure on that damn blister.

Mile 7: I can't believe I am at mile 7...it's not that bad!

Mile 8: Getting sleepy...

Mile 9: Yay they have GU (equivalent to very thick Gatorade) to wake me up and keep me going!

Mile 10: My knees are now numb due to the running not just the cold!

Mile 11: Who in the world thought it would be funny to put a very steep hill at mile 11? HUH?! Oh but I see that the people playing the drums are supposed to make us feel better.

Mile 12: Holy crap I'm almost there! This is where I was listening to a song from Aladdin (don't ask) and telling my self Ms. Jones is behind me not letting me stop HAHA!

Mile 13: I see the Mustang and know Brant is waiting for me at the end...I am way too excited and think I may cry! Linkin Park and Jay-z's Encore is blasting quite loudly by this point.

The last .1: Umm so it's really not cool when you cross mile 13 and realized you still have .1 to go...it's further than you may think.

Finish line: AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I made it in 2hrs 21 mins (that's only 5 mins over what I wanted to run it in)...but I now feel like jello. I see a big tub full of ice and water bottles. I desperately want to jump in but figure that wouldn't be very sanitary so just take a water instead. Brant informs me that my knees are about twice their normal size...SWEET!

The next 20 mins: I spent these trying to find a trash can to puke in, eating a banana, and taking pictures with all the other crazy nursing people who ran with me!

The drive home: I was trying not to puke and keep my foot on the gas.

Home: Oh hey the blister isn't as bad as it feels, take a HOT shower, throw up twice, sleep for the next six hours!

All in all I would say it was a success! I can't believe I didn't walk once...the Lord knows I wanted to but I figured once I stopped I wouldn't be able to get going again. This is a good thing it turned out so well because Jenny, Kristin, and I have to do it all over again on Jan 18th...YAY!

~Little Elliot~

So I once again forced Jason and Crissi to go out so I could get my hands on little Elliot! He is such a wonderful baby! Here's a few pics from the night...

It's been a while...

Well I can't even remember the last blog I did...without looking that is. So much has been going on! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Brant's family and I even made my first apple and pumpkin pies...they were mostly homemade, LOL! I was able to finally pick up my bridesmaid dress for Meg's wedding...they are absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to wear them on the big day.

Shelly Ivy, Meg's photographer, had a free photo day on Saturday and we thought it would be so nice to have Christmas pictures taken with Izzy! The shoot was so much fun and we got the perfect shot for our first Christmas card plus some other amazing ones...I will post some when we get them!

After the holiday weekend it was back to Tucson. We saw Cirque du Soleil (Saltimbanco) on Sunday night for our 5 year anniversary which isn't until this Sunday but Brant will be busy and I will have just finished my first 1/2 marathon...most likely I will not want to get off the couch after that, LOL! We have never seen one of their shows before and it was pretty AWESOME! I would love to go to another in Vegas.

Brant has since been working his little butt off to finish all his projects due this week and next. I haven't seen him much the last few weeks but it will be worth it in the end:-). I had my Med-Surg clinical final today and it actually went very well. It was a little nerve racking having a fake patient, in a fake room, trying to be a REAL nurse, and your clinical instructing pretending to be the patient (their voice anyway) and grading you at the same time, LOL! Sounds worse than it actually was but just glad to be done. I have my Peds clinical final tomorrow which Jenny and I prepared for today. I just have to keep my positive attitude and I know I will be fine:-). I then have my 1/2 marathon Sunday...this I don't feel as prepared for but how can you really be?! I am doing it with some wonderful friends, though, and we're gonna get through it together...I can't promise we won't be dragging each other or offering to pay the boys for piggyback rides, HAHA, but we are GOING TO FINISH!

Next week we are pretty much free from anything nursing...giving us plenty of time to study for finals! I have a final Monday and Wednesday of finals week and then I am DONE with 3rd semester! I am finally on the down hill of nursing school...only one more semester of clinicals and then we will be acting as the nurse...CRAZY!

Meg and Jon are both graduating at the end of finals week. I just can't believe it...we are all becoming grown ups, LOL! We plan to go home once their graduations are over and spend a good amount of time in Phoenix this year for Christmas. Brant's firm has slowed with the number of projects they are doing so he will be able to take off much easier. I won't be working while I try to transfer to a different area in the hospital (either ER or the Women's center). I am also looking into the VALOR program at the VA which allows you to work almost like a nurse and pays $19/hr. I most likely would not be able to start that until the summmer, though.

Well that's my novel! Hope you enjoyed it!

P.S. Here are some pics from the last few weeks: