#22: Pass My Qualifying Exam

Yesterday, after posting a monthly update on my 30x30 progress, I went home to find this:

Well, I didn't find it on the fridge; I found it in the mail.  But I was pretty sure that I knew what it was, and I was right.  It's the official letter stating that I passed my qualifying exams!  So that means I get to cross another item off my 30x30 list!!  So because I love crossing things off lists...

 

22. Pass my qualifying examination (Accomplished July 23, 2013!)

 

So one month into this challenge, I am 10% of the way done.  Not too shabby, right?  

Monthly Update

Today is July 23, 2013, exactly one month since my 29th birthday and the beginning of my 30x30 Challenge.  (It's also my sister's and brother-in-law's two year wedding anniversary.  Congrats, Kirsten and Jordan!)  So it seemed like an update on my list items would make for an appropriate post.  Here's a look at how I've done so far:

1. Attend Sunday night church at least one night a month - I promise, I'll get started with this on Sunday!
2. Clean out and organize the office closet - I haven't even thought about/touched this yet.
3. Complete the coursework for my doctoral program - I'm halfway through my summer class and have my last two courses in the fall.  So this should be accomplished in early December.
4. Complete the gallery wall in my house - Slowly but surely, I'm making progress on this one.
5. Create and implement a safety "plan" for the house - Yeah, I haven't even started thinking about this one either...
6. Defend the proposal for my dissertation - I'm hopeful that this will happen sometime in Spring 2014.
7. Deep clean and purge the house of extra junk - This should happen in mid-December, if not sooner.
8. Finally finish watching "Lost" - I'm actually making progress on this one!  Taylor and I just finished episode 10 (out of 18) in the final season of the series.  So maybe I can cross this off my list in another month or so?
9. Find and buy the perfect little black dress - I have not looked, found, or purchased this.
10. Get pedicures with my sisters - Maybe around Christmastime?  Or before Valentine's Day?
11. Give blood - Yeah, I need to get on that.
12. Go on a fancy dinner date with my husband - This should happen in October for his birthday, if not sooner.
13. Go to a midnight movie - The plan here is to attend "Catching Fire" (the second Hunger Games movie) at midnight on November 22.  I've already starting making plans for this!
14. Go to Six Flags with a group of friends - Maybe in August or September?  For Brian Lair's birthday?
15. Have a certain amount of money in my retirement fund - I am almost 82% of the way to my goal amount.  Just a few more months and I can cross this off the list!
16. Have a certain amount of money in our savings account - I am about 51% of the way to this goal amount.  So I need to work on this a little more.
17. Hold a newborn baby (Accomplished July 10, 2013!)
18. Keep a regular prayer journal - Still need to get started on this.
19. Make extra payments on my husband's students loans - Yup, I'm doing this every month.
20. Make extra payments on our mortgage - Also doing this every month!
21. Participate in/practice "Meatless Mondays" - So far, so good.  And feeling so much better for it.
22. Pass my qualifying examination - I'm hoping to receive official word (and good news!) about this by the end of this week.
23. Read the entire Bible in one year - I've stuck with my reading plan and have read 8% of the entire Bible so far.
24. Run five 5K races - Ran the first on July 19, 2013 and will hopefully run my second on August 10, 2013.  Then I'll start thinking about which ones to do in October and November...
25. Run a 10K race - Still need to find and plan for one of these.
26. Run a half marathon - Hoping to do this on September 15, 2013, so we'll see!  Wow, I get nervous just writing about that!! 
27. Start a blog (Accomplished June 23, 2013!)
28. Take a Barre 3 exercise class - Need to schedule this and do it soon.
29. Teach a Bible class at my church - I'm currently doing this with a friend this quarter.  I'll have to post some information about it before the class ends at the end of next month.
30. Volunteer at Breakfast on Boulevard - Maybe sometime this fall?

So I've completed about 6% of my list so far, while making good progress in some areas, and absolutely no progress in others.  That's not too bad for the first month, I guess.  But it is a good reminder of the things I should try to think about and do in the coming weeks!

First 5K: Hotter Friday Night 5K

This past Friday, July 19, I ran my first 5K of the 30x30 Challenge.  It look place by the Oklahoma River near downtown Oklahoma City at 8 p.m.  So it was appropriately named the Hotter Friday Night 5K.  (This was part of a "Sizzlin' Summer Series," so the Hot Friday Night 5K was in June and the Hottest Friday Night 5K is in August.)  Of the series, I think this is the only race I'm going to run, mostly because I have plans to participate in some other 5K races instead.

Anyway, my husband and I originally planned on running this race together, but some other stuff came up, so my friend Pam was more than happy to jump in and take his place.  And I was excited to run another race with her!  (Pam and I were on the same relay team at the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon this past April, so it was fun to do another event with her.)  So after picking her up around 7 p.m., we made the quick drive around downtown to get to the park.  And Pam laughed hysterically at this:

That's right; I'm too cheap (and lazy) to update the map on my GPS, so it thinks we're in the middle of nowhere, even though we're on the busiest stretch of I-40 right by downtown Oklahoma City.  Good thing Pam knew for sure where we were going!

In general, the race was good.  Since I was with Pam, who is a much faster and longer distance runner than me, we got a spot close to the starting line.  And when the gun went off, so did Pam!  Within a few seconds, she was out of sight, so I worked on setting a comfortable pace and (literally) taking things one step at a time.  After about the first mile, my awareness of the heat really hightened.  (It was about 95 degrees, which is actually about 10 degrees cooler than it was at the same race last year.  Not that I was crazy enough to run that one!)  As I approached the halfway point, I felt really yucky - that is, until I saw that the clock read 13 minutes and 30 seconds.  That was about two minutes earlier than I expected it to be!  So I tried to keep up my speed, just thinking about my previous time (32 minutes and 20 seconds) that I wanted to beat.  Of course, the second part of the run was more difficult than the first part, but at least the sun was no longer in my eyes and I had a beautiful view of the Oklahoma City skyline. 

And to my surprise, I crossed the finish line with a time of 30 minutes and 42 seconds!

Pam finished about seven minutes before me, which I guess was actually a fairly crummy time for her.  (I'm telling you, people, this girl is FAST!)  But she was very happy for me and my new PR.

I think the second 5K I'm going to run will be on August 10 with my husband and possibly some other friends.  My goal for that one is to get my time below 30 minutes, so wish me luck!

Half-Marathon Training Highlights

About two weeks ago, my husband and I took a 24 hour trip out of town to celebrate Independence Day with family, friends, food, and of course, fireworks.  After a brief cat nap in the afternoon, I went for a quick three mile run, which was really enjoyable because I was in an area in which I had not previously ran.  I feel like that always makes a run more interesting.  The downside, though, was that I looked like this for the fireworks show that evening...

Yes, my face is about as red as my shirt.  (But my sweet sister-in-law looks great!)  That's primarily because it was hot - at least 90 degrees - and I found myself running a steeper incline than I usually do.  (Our part of the state is pretty flat, but the east part is not, so I wasn't exactly prepared for that.)  It was still a great experience, though.

The rest of my runs have been pretty basic - three miles or so here and there.  (One of my best times, in fact, was three miles in 27 minutes and 49 seconds.)  Then on Saturday, I ran six miles with my friend Pam.  She's a much more accomplished runner than I am, so I was only able to keep up with her because she was fighting an injury.  And even then, six miles was a little more than I was prepared to do.  By the last mile or so, I found myself alternating between running and walking.  But I finished the run (after Pam finished and ran back to "cross the finish line" with me).  So I may have to try to talk her into doing a slighly shorter distance, like five miles, this week!

Pam and I are also running a 5K this Friday night, so I'm looking forward to that.  (Plus, she will be running in the same half marathon as me in September.  Thank goodness because I did not want to do that alone!)  The 5K will be the first of the five that I'm supposed to run this year.  I'm also hoping to beat my PR from my last 5K, which was 32:20.  I was actually kind of disappointed with that time, so I really hope to do better!

Meatless Monday (July 15)

Meatless Monday is still underway, which means I've stuck with it for almost a month now.  And today, I learned that even some fast food places have meatless options (other than fries and grilled cheese sandwiches, which hardly count as healthy).  Behold, the Veggie Delight at Subway!

(Ignore my make-up-less face and rain drenched hair.  It is Monday, after all!) 

This sandwich, made with honey oat bread, was packed with creamy avocado and salty black olives (two of my favorite foods), cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, and tomatoes.  And it was delicious!  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I order it on a non-meatless day sometime in the future as well.

So you should definitely try it sometime if you haven't already!

#17: Hold a Newborn Baby

On Wednesday, July 10, I crossed a second item off my 30x30 list.  It was #17: Hold a newborn baby.  Yup, in the mid-afternoon that day, my friends Amanda and Josh welcomed their third child (but first daughter!), Haddie, into the world.

My husband and I visited Josh, Amanda, and Haddie in the hospital right after church - just about five hours after she was born!  And of course, Taylor and I both had to hold her.

She already looks so much like her mom, dad, and brothers!  (I know that sounds crazy - I used to be one of those people who didn't think newborns looked like anyone.  I just thought they looked like very tired, small, and somewhat traumatized human beings.)  But it was amazing to see and hold a sweet new life!

The really good news is that I should have a few more chances to hold newborn babies before I turn 30 next year.  So even though I've crossed the item off the list, I'm looking forward to enjoying the experience several more times.

Until next time, much love to Josh, Amanda, big brothers C and L, and of course, Miss Haddie!

Gallery Walls and Savings Accounts

I haven't posted in awhile, so it seems like a good time for a 30x30 update.  Because, despite my lack of blogging, I promise that I have been working on my list!

Here are a few (not so) quick updates...

#4: Complete the gallery wall in my house.  We have a small front hallway in our house that desperately needs a little love.  But unfortunately, the space is really too small to build a mudroom or create a "drop off" entryway zone.  So I used Pinterest (of course) to explore other ideas.  That's when I discovered the gallery wall!  (Well, I technically discovered the gallery wall on the Young House Love blog.  If you haven't checked it out, you should because it's gorgeous!)  Then I found a couple of other inspiring gallery wall pictures, like this one and this one.  I was sold!  But like I said earlier, I knew I would have to do the project over time since I didn't have an extra 50-100 frames just lying around.  Anyway, I worked on this project the last two or three weekends and made great progress!  It's still not finished - I probably need at least another 20 or 30 frames for that - but I'm really pleased with how it's coming along.  I think I'll wait another week or two to share a full picture of the space, but here are some sneak peeks:

 

These are the frames that I am using in the hallway.  They are from the Canopy line at Wal-Mart and I love them because they look so much more high end than they cost!  (Plus, they look great with all of the dark wood in our house.)  The matting also really emphasizes the "gallery" look that I am trying to achieve.

 

For anyone who wants to create their own gallery wall, or just needs an easy way to hang a few pictures, here is some great tip: Take a newspaper or leftover wrapping paper and trace the shape of the frame on it.  Then cut it out, flip over the frame, and lay the paper over the back of the frame.  Mark the spot where the nail hole will go.  After that, you just have to tape the paper on the wall (I recommend using a level, especially if you are hanging multiple frames next to each other) and hammer the nail in the marked spot.  Tear off (or carefully remove to reuse) the paper and then hang the picture.  Easy-peasy!

 

#15: Have a certain amount of money in my retirement fund.  Well, I did it.  I finally transferred the money from my old retirement fund to my new one.  And I started contributing to my retirement again.  So while I probably don't have as much saved in my retirement as I should, I'll hit my 30x30 goal in just two more months!  I really could have done some more challenging math on that one, so maybe I'll rephrase my goal to "contribute a certain amount of money in my retirement fund," which won't count the amount that I transferred from another source.  Regardless, I'm pretty pleased about this goal!

 

#16: Have a certain amount of money in our savings account.  This objective will be a little more difficult to achieve, just because of where my husband and I are in life.  However, I believe that we have pretty good financial instincts, though neither of us have been through any kind of formal "training."  I have read some stuff by Dave Ramsey and realized that we already follow several of his recommendations, so that is reassuring, to say the least.  But in general, we follow a simple formula for managing our finances.  John Maxwell calls it the 10-10-80 plan.  So when we get paid (once a month on the same day), I first put 10% of our paychecks into our savings account.  Then I get out our checkbook and write a check for 10% of our paychecks and make it out to our church.  The last 80% of our paycheck is what we have to live on that month.  So it has to cover our mortgage, student loan payments, food bills, gas bills, utility bills, random expenses, etc.  This has worked really well for us and allowed us to not just build up our "don't touch" savings account, but also save up for fun items, like a new TV, anniversary cruise, etc.  To date, we are little over halfway to my 30x30 goal for our savings account.  Slowly but surely, I will hopefully reach this objective as well.

 

#19: Make extra payments on my husband's students loans.  Yikes.  Student loans suck, right?  Well, if you don't have them, consider yourself very lucky because they are no fun.  I won't go into many details about our student loans, but we have them and we want them gone as soon as possible.  Even making extra payments, we are still years away from getting these things out of our lives.  But, every little bit helps and that's why I've been following an extra payment plan since January.  Here's what I do: First, I take the amount of our monthly student loan payment and add $100 to it.  Then I divide that amount by two.  Then, every two weeks (instead of once a month), I pay the divided amount toward the loan.  So let's pretend that our monthly payment is $500.  That plus $100 is $600.  Divided by two, our biweekly payments would be $300.  So not only are we paying an extra $100 a month, but we also end up making a couple extra payments a year since most months have more than four weeks in them.  Yes, there are times that I am tempted to pocket that extra money and spend it now, but this plan will allow us to cut years off the life of our loan.  I don't even know how much interest that will save us, but it is a lot!  So while it definitely hurts a little bit now, I know it will be worth it in the long run.   

 

#20: Make extra payments on our mortgage.  Long story short, we basically do the same thing with our mortgage that we do with my husband's student loans (minus the extra $100 a month).  In fact, Taylor's uncle recommended the bi-weekly payment plan to us when we first bought out house, so we have been using it ever since the beginning of our home ownership days.  When we saw what a difference it made in paying down our interest and escrow amounts, we knew we wanted to use it to pay off his student loans as well.  Again, it's taken some self-control, but I know we will be glad we did it later.

 

#21: Participate in/practice "Meatless Mondays."  Yup!  I'm sticking to it and not eating meat on Mondays.  This means I had a bean burrito at Chipotle yesterday instead of my usual carnitas burrito.  And while I love their delicious pork burritos, I didn't miss the meat as much as I thought I would.  In fact, this seems to get easier every week.  I just hope that I can do it for another 49 weeks! 

 

#23: Read the entire Bible in one year.  I'm still going well with this goal too.  I've actually read 4% of the Bible so far, which means that I've made it through Genesis 42 in the Old Testament and have read the first 14 chapters of Romans in the New Testament.  I'm still loving the YouVersion Bible app and blended reading plan.  I definitely recommend it if you have a smart phone/iPad and a similar goal. 

 

I do have some more updates regarding 5K races, half marathon training, and teaching a Bible class at church, but I will have to save them for another day!