Did You Miss Me?

I missed you for sure! I REALLY missed writing this blog!

I will offer no excuses but will catch you up on my life in the last nine months or so.

In October, I took a new job and found myself in the unfortunate position of having to study for another licensing exam. For me, this is the stuff of nightmares. It was a hideous couple of months of self study before I took the Series 7 exam. Seriously, this stuff for me is vomit worthy.

During those two months of self study, we kind of accidentally bought a house. On Election Day actually. I went to vote that morning, and then I went to give our realtor all of our paperwork. They had accepted our offer by that afternoon. I say accidentally because we didn't expect to buy the first house we bid on, but that's how it went. So we were off on the our-house-closes-in-a-month-omg-we-have-to-pack races. I took my exam 2 days before we closed on the house in mid-December. BTW, this girl decided it would be brilliant to move the day after Christmas. That was just silly. But move we did, with the wonderful help of my in-laws--who are amazing!!!

At the end of February we had house guests arrive for a few months, they are missionaries who were here to raise support in the US. My darling friend and sister Verica was with us through the end of April, and our "little brother," Alek was with us through the end of May. They were so much fun to have with us; the house still feels quiet and empty without them. I kept finding hidden post it notes from Alek hidden randomly all over the house. There was even one on the iron. Took me a month to find it. I should be ashamed, but I'm not.

At the beginning of May, I had a pretty painful accident. Fell down a flight of stairs, the last half of it actually. Dislocated my hip, did soft tissue damage to my knee and shoulder. Spent a few weeks on crutches, unable to walk, in a lot of pain, and out of work. Also, I was pretty tanked on the pain meds. My brother and mom took turns babysitting me because there is no telling what I think will be a great idea while I'm on vicodin. Publishing posts to a blog were not allowed.

In June, I exhaled. I also continued to heal.

In July, we had a wonderful working vacation planned and the day before we were supposed to leave, our water main started leaking. Ah, the joys of homeownership. All was fixed before we left, and we went across the big blue ocean and spent time in Zurich (just a day long layover), Slovenia, and Macedonia. Rob and I spent our time in Macedonia with our dear friends, and we volunteered our time to be English tutors for high-school and collage aged students who wanted to speak more English. We also shared our faith. Amazing! All that fun stuff, and we were lakeside in Ohrid, Macedonia. Swimming in the lake sure beat being in Arizona at 118* F. Surprisingly I was able to walk, walk, walk my little heart out in Europe. Stairs, cobblestone, miles and miles each day.

So now, I'm here.

Almost the beginning of August, waiting desperately to get the clearance from my doc to work out strenuously again. Although truthfully, after the dislocated hip I don't know how long it will be or if I will ever be allowed to return to CrossFit. So much of your power in weightlifting is generated from your hips. At this point I will take anything that the doc will let me do, but considering that it's barely coming up on 3 months since my accident, I'm pretty happy I made it through the European vacation. I've had a lot of realizations lately, and I'll share them in the coming days. But I just want you to know, that even though I've been silent, I haven't stopped trying and working hard.

I'm down 65lbs since October. Today I weigh less than I did my senior year of high school. I can't believe I can say that. And from my highest weight ever five years ago, I am down 150lbs. I've lost a human so far. I can't wait to see where the next year will take me.