Time! Shannon

There's never enough of it!  So having said that, I'm gonna make this a quickie.

I'm getting ready to head out this weekend to South Lake Tahoe for an annual quilting retreat I attend each year - I've enjoyed going to this particular retreat primarily for the company for the past 12 years.  For the most part I only see these women once a year at this retreat.  Sadly, this will be my last year with them as I can no longer afford the prices that the group leader is charging.  In fact, this year I won't even be sewing with them in the large Dobbin's Hall at the Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center because of the price she was going to charge me to just sit and sew for 4 days.  Therefore, my friend Mickey and I will be staying in a timeshare up the road, spending our day sewing together.  Then in the evening we will head over to the Hall and visit during the evening's show and tell time.

I am truly looking forward to this following week as I will be in a beautiful place with a wonderful friend doing what I love to do most - quilt.  I will, of course, get out and do some exercising, but there will be no long runs in my schedule until after I get back.

Since time is short, I'll do a quick synopsis of what I've been up to since my last post.  I've managed to get in 1 speed workout, 1 hill repeat workout, 1 gym workout (arms, chest), two 4-miler evening runs, and one 6-miler MTB ride.   Not a whole lot, however, I'm feeling good and I'm feeling rested since SNERS.

I also got to take a trip up to my MIL's in Camptonville, CA (known as The Little Town That Could) this last weekend.  We then took a trip up to Downvieville where we checked out a new place for us to have our own mini-quilting retreat starting next year.  We went to the Sierra Shangri-La and booked a beautiful cabin for next year - we are so excited.

I also hit a milestone in my life last week. It has been 7 long years, and I am by no means done, but I can officially say that I have lost 100 pounds!  How do you ask?  Sheer perseverance & determination. Why has it taken so long to lose 100 pounds?  Because I did it the right way - eating right and exercising - no magic pills, no surgeries!  It's not been easy, life always manages to get in the way, but the key is to never give up.  I still have 20-30 pounds to go, but I feel great about this huge milestone in my life!

Tonight I will get in an MTB ride, and tomorrow morning I will attempt to get 8 miles in then head over to Diane's Bootcamp for some butt kicking.   That will be it for over a week, other than getting in some walks and maybe a run or two while I'm in South Lake.

Till I get back, stay dirty.

Oh and be prepared, I'll be showing some of my quilts next time :)

Finishes! Shannon

This last week was all about finishes!  It all started with my last big long race for the season last Saturday at SNERS (you can read about it HERE).  Although I may still do one more race this year, I won't be doing any ultras until March 2011.

Then on Tuesday I had 2 finishes.  First I finished up my schooling, which I have not mentioned on this site before, for insurance brokering/agenting.  A friend of mine encouraged me to obtain a license to sale insurance as a back-up to my future.  Well in order to get a license in California you must first take 40 hours of schooling on Health and Life insurance, then another 12 hours of schooling for Codes and Ethics in insurance.  I graduated!!  Woo hoo.  Now I have to study really hard to take the California Licensing exam - yikes.  But I still finished my schooling - yeah.

Next, Tuesday also saw the season finish for my golf league the Twilight Club of Sacramento.  We had our final play day and an end of season party Tuesday evening.  A lot of fun!  You can see all the pics for that afternoon/evening HERE and if you'd really like to read about our little mini tournment click HERE.  If you're not a golfer, you'll probably not be interested.  If you are golfer, you may still not be interested, but I thought I'd share anyways - LOL.

Yesterday, Mark, myself, and Mark's son, Chris, all took off to Caples Lake, where I put a finish to my kayaking season (not that I had a whole lot of kayaking this season, but still I don't plan on doing any more).  We got up early and head out for a 2 hour drive to Caples Lake.  I had never been there before, but have heard great things about it.  When we got there I was in awe.  What a really pretty lake.  We first stopped at the little store in the resort area so we could quiz the guy where the best fishing spots were and so I could ask about kayak rentals.

He sent us over near the spillway and we headed out on the Emigrant Lake trail that runs right along the lake.  By the way, I want to go back there and run, anyone want to join me??  Anyways, the guys got situated and I took a short walk to check out the scenery.  I managed to find a few wild flowers still in the area, but very few.  Then I came across a plant that looks a lot like cilantro, however, it had little red berries on it.  I have no idea what kind of berries these are - what do you think?

After I got back to the guys, I decided it was time to kayak, it had warmed up a bit, so I was ready.  I left them to fish and I hiked back to the car then drove over to the resort area.  I asked for a single seater sit atop kayak, however, all he had was a double, but he said it was a good sit atop that was very managable for a single rider and he gave me a great deal on it.  $20 and I could keep out as long as I wanted to - woo hoo - can't beat that.

First order of business, take the boys 2 sodas.  So I got in the kayak and took off heading toward the boys across the lake.  By this time I had gotten hungry and it was time for lunch, so when I got across the lake to them, I got out and had lunch.  Then took off to see the lake from all the edges.

I headed to the back cove of the lake and almost made it all the way, but the clouds rolled in and the wind really picked up thus making my progress to the back of the lake a bit more challenging, plus my shoulder was yelling at me by this point as I had gone over 2 miles.  I figured it must be a sign and time to head back to the car, so I started back.  By the time I had gotten back to the docking area I had gone over 3 miles, my shoulder was not happy, and my tush was all wet, but I had a blast and got some good pics while out there. You can see all the pics HERE.

Now that I'm finished with different parts of my life for now, it's time for new starts.  Therefore, this coming week is about starting new, first and foremost will be for me to get back in the gym on a regular basis.  I've slacked off quite a bit with my weight training and now that I'm not training for anything in particular, it's time to focus on my strength training.  I'm also planning on getting my yoga in on a weekly basis and work on get these short hammy's of mine lengthened.  Lastly, I will start my serious focus on studying for the Insurance Licensing Exam in hopes of completing and passing the exam by Dec 1st (there I set a goal date for all to see - keep me accountable people).  That's all I'm going to commit to right now as I believe it's going to be tough to stick to that.

So now if I want to have any success in my new beginnings I better get off the computer and do what needs to be done to get 'er done!

Stay dirty!