Adventures with Lisa & Kevin

One of the biggest perks to working for a university (me) = two weeks off at Christmas!

BUT we were able to finagle a few days before Christmas for a quick, shotgun trip down south. We decided to surprise Kevin's mom Dorothy so she was the only one in our families that didn't know we were coming down. We had a good week or so of talking up how sad it was that we weren't able to come down at all for the holidays...if only she knew...hehehehe.

Monday 12/20
After Kevin got off of work that afternoon we jumped in the car and made our way down to Long Beach. We got in around 1am Tuesday morning and after quickly saying hi to my mom, we hit the sack to get ready for our big surprise the next morning.

Tuesday 12/21
Kevin's dad George helped with the surprise telling Dorothy that he had a doctor's appointment that morning that he wanted her to go to with him. So our plan was for Kevin to call Dorothy on her cell phone and have her on the phone when we knocked on the door. Here are two videos of Operation: Surprise Dorothy for Christmas 2010! ;)





Thomas was there and Judith, Joshua and Katelyn came over for a yummy breakfast of waffles, french toast, and bacon.




A little gift exchange...






We spent the whole day with the family and enjoyed a yummy spaghetti dinner together too.



Wednesday 12/22
We met up with Thomas and his girlfriend Ashley for breakfast at The Potholder Cafe in Long Beach.




That afternoon we spent a few hours hanging out with my mom (like old times!) and then met up with my brother Derek, our friend Brian, my mom's boyfriend Steve and the Chinese student living with my mom while he studies at CSULB Jeremy for dinner at Lucille's BBQ (me and Kevin's favorite chain restaurant!)

Thursday 12/23
We woke up early so that me, Kevin and my mom could go to Westminster for our annual Chinese massage (annual for me and Kev, more often for my mom!) It was EXACTLY what we needed and we enjoyed it so much. My mom asked the guys to snap a few photos of us for proof, haha!



We then went to fill up our tummies with some yummy Chinese food at Seafood Cove #1.



That afternoon around 4pm we jumped back in our car and made our way back to San Francisco so that Kevin could be at work the next morning at 6am.

On Sunday 10/17 I completed my first half marathon (13.1 miles) and I am so so so proud of myself for doing it! I participated in the Long Beach International City Bank half marathon and had a fantastic experience even though it was a really rough run.

The night before I was up half the night with food poisoning. The day before I didn't eat much since I wasn't hungry (probably nerves) and that night went to eat at a local Italian restaurant at the urging of my mom who encouraged me to carbo load for the next day's race. I knew it'd be good for me so I went even though I wasn't hungry. After a plate of spaghetti and meatballs I felt overly full (hadn't felt like that in a long time) and we decided to take a walk in Seal Beach to walk the feeling off. My stomach wasn't happy with me for eating so much (or so I thought) and after some uncomfortable visits to the bathroom at the Coffee Bean I thought it was all over.

I went to bed at 9:30 so that I could get enough rest for the early morning start time. At 10:30 I woke up shaking violently and feeling nauseous. I ran to the kitchen and proceeded to throw up all of the spaghetti I had eaten hours before. After falling back asleep at 11pm I woke up at 1am sweating profusely and having to run to the kitchen again to throw up what water I had in my system. I woke up again at 3am feeling like crap but luckily didn't have to get up.

So when my alarm went off at 5am it's probably pretty obvious that I was not feeling my best. My head was pounding. My body was aching all over. I was dehydrated and had no appetite. To be honest I was about 50% sure that I wasn't going to be able to go on with the race. But the determined part of me that doesn't like to give up kept insisting that I didn't drive 400 miles, I didn't have tons of people rooting for me, I didn't pay the $90 entrance fee, and I didn't make it a goal to run a half marathon before my 27th birthday for nothing!

My mom and Steve drove me there (thank goodness because I don't think I would've been able to handle the traffic and the stress on my own). The traffic was horrendous (when 20,000 people are trying to get to the same place it doesn't make for easy traffic) but we got lucky and a police officer randomly told us to take a different exit which saved us tons of time. We walked a couple of miles from the parking lot and before I knew it I was at the starting line.

When I started the race, my body was aching so much it felt as though I had already run 13 miles. Not good. But the gun shot off and I started running. The longest run I did in my training was the week before and I ran 10 miles in 1 hour, 50 minutes. Generally I run at least 4-5 miles without stopping and then when I do stop it's only for a minute or so and then I keep running. This time, I didn't even make it to the 2 mile mark without walking. I'd start running again for a bit and then have to stop to walk for a mile. It was terrible. At mile 6 I was reunited with my mom and Steve and saw my friends Alison and Seth who drove up from Irvine to see me and they gave me a little boost of energy. But it didn't last long. I was feeling so incredibly sluggish and I wanted to call my mom and tell her to come pick me up because I didn't think I could do it. I was on the verge of tears a few times when I'd be jogging so slow people were walking faster than me. It was the most difficult run I have ever done and more than the physical difficulty it was mentally difficult to continue. But I did.

The water and PowerAde breaks every couple of miles helped immensely and I started to feel hydrated. At mile 10 I decided to try one of those Clif Bar energy gel shots (a funky thing I had heard of before but wasn't interested in trying previously, it's like the consistency between pudding and jello and I was definitely not excited to try it). It had an immediate effect on me and I felt increasingly stronger and more energetic. The thought of my friends Alison and Seth leaving because she had yoga teacher training at 12noon in Huntington Beach inspired me to get to the finish line as quickly as possible. So at mile 10 I started running. And I didn't stop the entire time.

At mile 13 I saw my mom and Steve and the tears started welling up. With only .1 miles to go, I just took off and started high-tailing it. I ran as fast as my body could take me. You know, you'd think more people would do that when the finish line was in sight, but no one around me was doing that, so I must have looked like a crazy woman to all of those hundreds of spectators. But I didn't care, I was going to finish the race strong.

After 3 hours and 19 minutes of an extremely difficult run I crossed the finish line as the tears rolled down my cheeks. I have never felt more proud of myself than I did in that moment. It was an extremely difficult road (not just the run itself by the months leading up to it) but I did it. And I am so excited to call myself an athlete and to continue running for the rest of my life.

Two weeks after Rock the Era I was back in the car to make the drive down to LB--but this time with Jessie and Lola to accompany me!

We again left on a Wednesday night and stayed through Sunday--but this time I decided to take Thursday off as a vacation day so that I wasn't stuck at home working from the computer!

On Thursday my friend Kim came over and brought over some delicious breakfast--oat pancakes with bananas, peanut butter and nutella spread--amazing!

On Friday me and Jess took Lola and Luke to the Long Beach dog park for some afternoon fun.



That night I went out to dinner with Brianne and Brian and it was great catching up and spending some time with them! We went to eat at The Spaghetti Factory in Fullerton and it was oh-so-delicious. We shared a lot of laughs, especially when I told the waiter that it was Brianne's birthday (even though her bday is in October) in hopes that we'd score some free dessert and then was surprised when he told me that they come around to sing but won't bring any dessert, haha!


The main reason I went down to LB for a second time in July was to celebrate the marriage of Janeth and Diego, two friends from Redlands. They got married at the Alumni House on campus and their reception was in downtown Redlands in an old brick warehouse type building that was absolutely gorgeous!