boourns

I seem to be a magnet for inconvenient illnesses. By that I mean those illnesses that are frustrating, but somehow don't prevent one from staying home from work because it's not quite bad enough to stay home. I've got laryngitis. This is my first experience with this virus and though I would take it over the flu or a runny nose/headache cold, communication is really rough! For example, how does one corral 17 little preschoolers without a voice?? Answer: she gets her partner teacher to do all the yelling and feels like a shoe.

I really need to get my power connected for next week and I can't talk...BAH!

m

What I've been up to...

...love...


Living in a bedroom...soon I will have 2 bedrooms!!


Finding dead birds at the front door

Just for Dom ;)

I haven't posted pictures in a long while, so here's what we have been up to lately...




I never have to worry that Travis will forget my birthday because his is two days later!


Blowing bubbles with our "family" :)


Mahone Bay - picturesque Nova Scotia at its finest. I went for a day trip with two of my friends and it was lovely.


Taking it all in...

It's kinda of sad that I only have 4 photos for the last few months! Once we move into our new place I'll, hopefully, post some more!

M

Houston, we have a problem...

I am slowing coming to terms with the repercussions of having an extremely unbalanced work/life. If I were one of those scales with work in one basket and life in the other, the work basket would solidly be sitting on the floor and over flowing, while the life basket would be thrust high above it pretty much empty. For a while I was so overwhelmed with stress that I didn't really realize how out of balance my life was...ironically enough! It's the long weekend and though I do have homework, but it's not pertinent that I do it today or tomorrow, so Travis told me to relax. Um, relax...I'm not sure that I know how to do that. I have spent 8 or so months where every single moment of my life has been planned, measured, occupied. Now I do have some space and I'm struggling! If I'm not doing something I feel very lazy. When Travis told me to relax I said to him, "I don't have anything to do" and he said, "Don't DO anything!!", to which I replied, "I'm not sure that I can do that". So, I'm working on stopping the wheels running in my head and learning to relax, which no one should have to do!

Running Update:

I ran 6 kms on Saturday, one of the toughest runs that I've done so far. I took me a long time to hit my stride, but I was happy to make it through. That meant my last long run wasn't a fluke! Jenn and I went to running yoga on Saturday afternoon which was absolutely great. The class ended up being an hour and 45 and by the end I was exhausted, but I'm pretty sure every muscle in my body was thankful for the long, deep stretches. The instructor is a physiotherapist and she gave me some really helpful tips on strengthening my quads to help out my knees. She also brought it to my attention that the big problem might not be patella femoral related, though there are definitely some issues there. I get pain below my kneecaps on the outside, right on top of that bone where my quad muscles are connecting with my calf muscles. She said that I need to focus on working the muscle that runs from my hip to that joint. There is a bunch of deep tissue there that needs to relax and be strengthened. She also shook her head at me when I told her that I'm running on shoes that I've had for 4 years. I really haven't used them that much since I bought them, but I forgot about the deterioration factor, whoops! So I plan to take it easy until I can get some new shoes (hopefully this week) and then run like the wind!

I hope that you don't mind that I keep updating you on my running, but I feel so great about the strides that I've been making (no pun intended!) that I can't help it. I do plan on writing a better update on what's been going on spiritually and emotionally in my head, but it still all being worked through. Soon though!

I'm off for a mini road trip with some girlfriends this afternoon. I'm planning on remembering to bring my camera in hopes of posting some pictures of the beautiful province that I live in.

M

Ups and Downs

Up: I ran 6 kms on Saturday
Down: My knees were killing me! Stupid runner's knee!!

Now I have to strengthen my quads to hold my kneecaps in place. I guess I should be at least thankful I don't have to stop running, but oh man squats here I come.

Oh and the best "UP" of all...Jenn and Peter got engaged!! YES! Soooooo exciting!

Irony defined:

In my mac dictionary irony is defined as: "a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result"

...not that long after I posted about hoping nothing more crazy happens I cut a half inch long gash in my hand and had to get stitches...AHAHAHAHAHAHHA God!!! I really am laughing :) I'm okay, not worse for the wear in anyway, but just wondering what else could happen!!

Hello God, are you there?

Travis and I love Halifax. We love the lushness, the oldness, the ruralness and the urbaness, but one thing we don't love is the lack of jobs. We knew that Halifax's economy wasn't the greatest, but we were willing to sacrifice that stability for a slower pace of life...Ha!! The pace of my life has been anything but slow. We know find ourselves in a precarious situation. My jobs will be winding up in the next few months, Travis is done school, we've moved out to the "country" and Travis CANNOT find a job. He has sent out many, many resumes and hasn't even received one call back. I'm frustrated because I need his financial support and he's frustrated because he can't give me that financial support. Travis has not worked this entire school year and I have been "bringing home the bacon". We've only lived here for 8 months and I feel like I've worked the equivalent of 5 years. We have decided that I can't work this much anymore and I'm so thankful for that, but....Travis can't find a job. I know that God has something out there for Travis, I know that, but we have so many loose ends flying around at the moment that it would be more than great for just a few to be tied up. So if you think about us in the next couple of weeks please pray that he finds that job that God has for him soon, very soon. It is so encouraging to me that I can write that and know that my brothers and sisters in Christ are standing up with me praying about this. It takes a huge weight off my shoulders!

That's all for know. Maybe after this is all resolved we could go more than a months without something cataclysimal happening!?! For some reason I don't think that's going to happen...

M

Blog Neglectment

Yes I am still alive. Sorry about the silence, but it was necessary. But I don't want to talk about that now. I have something else to rant about (a good rant this time).

I have a fallen in love...with running. Oh my goodness, just saying "running" makes me all giddy inside. Since we moved back to the country I have had to give up formal yoga classes, as my 10 hour working day plus 1 hour commute and lack of yoga studio does not leave me time for classes. Plus there are no classes available when I am available, bummer! I do miss it a ton and a few weeks ago I started contemplating running. I started craving exercise...I have NEVER craved exercise in my entire life. I was the kid who used her sore knees to successfully garnered the sympathies of her gym teacher to let her off easy. Ever since hot yoga though this desire has been awakened inside of me, so I started running. I've only been running a handful of times but every time I love it a little bit more. I run 3kms, which isn't much, but I'm proud to say it, in about 25 minutes. The first time I ran it was death, death I tell you. I stopped multiple times to prevent myself from losing my breakfast on the side of the road. The second time I only stopped once and this morning I ran straight through and it was glorious. I found myself smiling and laughing out loud 2kms in. Yoga helped me fall in love with exercise. When I get back from running I always finish with a brief yoga series and do as many exercise as I can remember at that moment!

Right now is my running journey I am learning the importance of good posture, relaxation, steady strides, and most of all enjoying the scenery around you. Also, try not to step on worms. I'm not sure why but it just feels wrong! I am very lucky to be able to run in the country. Words can't even come close to describing it, but here is a picture...

...this doesn't really show to big picture, but imagine this times kilometre after kilometre. Beautiful, stunning, extraordinary...those are the words that come to mind when I run through it.

One a different note I was blessed with another opportunity to lead worship last weekend. Jon, my worship buddy who is extremely talented and I love playing with, went to Winnipeg, so he asked me to step in. I have slowly been struck by this truth that I strongly believe that God has been laying on my heart...I was made to worship. I had an extremely hard time preparing for the weekend and in the end I think that was the point. I had to rely on God to show me which songs to sing and give me to vocal strength to sing those songs. And lo and behold he did and it was amazing. I wasn't amazing, HE was amazing. Thank you Jesus!

Maybe I'll just run and worship for the rest of my life :)

M

Check out this video of one of the songs that God pressed into my heart for that Sunday and the days that followed. Sorry I'm not sure how to post actual videos on my blog, so I link will have to suffice for now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCxlqd2q_gk