Hello again, it's been awhile...

Wow, I have not kept up with this blog at all and I sincerely apologize! I ran my first half marathon, got engaged, and I'm still waiting to here back about Physical Therapy Assistant programs! I've still kept in touch with most of you, and I appreciate your prayers and support over the last months (not to mention the last 23 years!). And now I have something very special to share with you, and I hope you will help me out with this little task of mine:

On September 19th I'm participating in a 10k for a charity called Ride 4 Us. It's a local organization that helps purchase ultrasound machines and provides free screens for local clinics, in order to help pregnant mothers. To read more about this awesome charity you can click here to find the 4 Us link. I truly believe in this charity and hope that you will help me support them in anyway you can, either monetarily or with prayers for the mothers-to-be all around the country who's lives could drastically change in a matter of months. You can click here to see my own Profile on their website!

Thank you for all of your support, every little prayer counts! Happy running!

Oops, it's been awhile!

Well, I haven't been very good at keeping people updated, but at the same time it's been pretty ordinary around here! After moving into our new home, we've just enjoyed hanging out, working and I've been running like crazy in my spare time! I'm up to 6 miles (really slowly), and I'm running the 10k with my mom in Chicago on July 18th, a half marathon in Tacoma on August 1st, and another half marathon with my mom again in Chicago on September 13th! I don't think I'll be ready to run the half in Tacoma, but it'll be a good gauge to see what I can do! I'm looking forward to the challenge especially.

As far as other news, I'm still planning on attending Whatcom Community College in the Spring of 2010, for their Physical Therapy Assistant program part-time, and continuing to work at my current job, which is going great! I've been at the Tacoma Lutheran Home for a year now, and looking back I couldn't have asked for a better job after college. I've learned SO much. So I look forward to continuing to work with my fantastic rehab team!

Anyway, I also wanted to show off some photos from my awesome camping trip this past weekend at Whidbey Island for the 4th of July. We had a ton of fun! :)

Click here to see the photos!

New Address!

Hey all! We've moved! :) My current roommate Brianna, a friend of mine from college Sarah, and I are in the process of moving into a new house! Built in 2002, it's a pretty 3 bed, 2 (full!!!) bathrooms, two floors with a garage in a great neighborhood! Anyway, I just wanted to make sure that people received my new address (and I'm not printing out fancy cards this time! ha ha!):

628 North Steele St.
Tacoma, WA 98406

Don't be a stranger! :)

23 started off right!

Thank you to EVERYONE for your birthday wishes! I had the best afternoon/evening ever! Work was a tad busy, but all of my coworkers and I got off a little bit early and traveled down 6th Ave to Masa - my favorite Mexican sit-down restaurant in town! We were there for a little while, enjoyed chips, salsa, and margaritas. Then we walked down a block to my coworkers' favorite place called the Crown Bar, which was so cute inside and very lovely. The food smelled amazing, but I had eaten my weight in chips at Masa, so instead I tried a strawberry sidecar - a special of the day - which was fantastic! It was pretty fun! And my coworkers bought me a bottle of Reisling and the cutest wine glass that says, "Birthday girl" all over it and is painted so cute!

Then when I got home (after 4 hours out with the coworkers!) I returned home with a surprise party waiting for me! We watched a movie, I opened presents of flowers, a massage and a magazine subscription, and then I very happily said good night, after emailing our manager to say that I may be a little late! :) ha ha!

So thank you so much for my birthday wishes, the cards, everything! I had the best day ever!

Our new house!

Finally, more than a dinky 800 square foot apartment! We're getting a fantastic house in a cute little area of Tacoma, and we'll be close to a lot of fun areas too! We were pretty excited that we'll be able to hear the UPS chimes at noon as well! :)

Click here for pictures of the inside!

Back in the saddle again...

Well, after several weeks I'm back to my running regiment! I hit a huge road block last month, without a real goal to run after, and then I had an unfortunate sinus infection for the last three weeks, which thank goodness is fully resolved now! So Monday I ran 2 miles, slowly increasing my speed from 5.0 to 6.0 mph. Then yesterday, Wednesday I had a disappointing afternoon, where I felt like a big lead figurine, so instead of running 3 miles like I had planned, I ran 1 mile, walked a mile, and then gave up and rode the bike for 30 minutes.

Well, today my fantastic friend Meredith showed me Podrunner, and I suggest the Podcast called "Freeway to 10k" for anyone looking for a little "pump me up" music! It's fantastic! I ran 4.15 miles in about 45 minutes! I was so psyched, it's just a huge boost to my confidence!

Here's the website of the 12k that I'm planning on running in FOUR WEEKS!!!

I'd appreciate your thoughts and prayers for the next four weeks! It's going to be CRAZY! :)

Miss you all!

Happy Mother's Day!

I just wanted to take some time and space on my blog to recognize the amazing women in my family! I love you all and appreciate everything that you've done for me in my life!

Aunt Susie
Aunt Pipi
Aunt Debbie
Aunt Kelly
Aunt Debi
Aunt Linda
Aunt Lisa
Grandma Billie
Grandma Mary
Grandma Sue
Mama

and of course,

Mi madre, mom, and mommy!

Wait listed...

So I asked God for patience, and he probabaly gave me the best example ever. Western U of Health Sciences put me on their waitlist. So at any point from now to early August 2009, I could be asked to go to school down in Pomona. I have a lot to think about now, with a lease expiring in May, and a lot of other choices to make, I'm not sure what's going to happen and I HATE that! I am a planner, so the next few months are going to be really crazy for me. Keep me in your prayers and pray that I make decisions that will 1) allow me to follow God's will and not my own, and give me the courage to look outside my own plans and 2) not just be the easy position to take, but a well thought out plan.

Thanks!

Photos

Well, I'm exhausted right now. It took me 3 hours, 2 buses and a light rail to get home from the airport. I woke up with a 3 am phone call from the Super Shuttle people, and finally got home at noon. All I wanted was veggies, fruit and all natural food. Too much grease and fried these past couple days! Anyway, I'm going to take a nap now, but here are the photos, and I'll post something again soon!

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS!

I've got some 'xplaining to do!

Okay, so this is a little late and a little after the fact, but I did want to keep everyone updated on the happenings of their favorite Courtney in the PNW (Pacific NorthWest)! So here's a recap:

About 10 days ago I received an email from Lacey, an admissions rep from Western U of Health Sciences in Pomona, CA, asking me if I had sent my GRE scores to their program. I had, but of course I paid an additional $20 to resend my scores, which Western received a few days later.

Then last Thursday I received an email saying my application was complete and they were sending it to the admissions committee to review it. Super, I thought. Although I could have sworn this whole process was done and over with by now, but I'm not complaining! Not 10 minutes later I received another email requesting my presence in Pomona on Wednesday April 8th for an interview for the Doctorate of Physical Therapy Program! Crazy? I think so!

So as of right now, 5:10 pm on Tuesday, April 7th, I'm sitting in the Sheridan hotel, waiting for my poor dad who is stuck in Denver for an extra 45 minutes, and then we will go and celebrate with an In-n-Out burger with our family friend Ricky. Not a bad week, I'd say! Though my emotions feel like they've been toyed with or otherwise thrown on the worst roller coaster in the world, I'm taking it much better than many (including myself) would have expected.

All in all, I ask for your thoughts and prayers over the next 36 hours! It's going to be a blur!

A great weekend!

Hello everyone! I hope this Monday finds you well and rested! I am certainly feeling the effects of little sleep, but I'm excited to share the pictures I took of a fantastic weekend on the coast of Washington! We stayed at the Cape Disappointment campsite, walked through the 2 blocks of Ilwaco, cruised up and down Highway 103 through Long Beach and Ocean City, and had some amazing sunshine that I just have to brag about, after all, it's March! While it was terribly cold at night, the day times were simply rejuvenating, and I can't wait for our next trip in May! So, click on the different links below to see all my photos (there are 3 different albums!):

Cape Disappointment

Long Beach

The Campsite/Playing with my camera

Cell Phone

Hey all, just thought I'd let you know that my phone is now deceased and I am in the process of buying a new one. In the meantime, email is the best way to get ahold of me! :)

March Madness

LOOK WHAT I WOKE UP TO!!! IT'S MARCH IN TACOMA!!!

And as difficult as it is for me to admit failure, I feel like I have to share with everyone that I now have 5 rejection letters to PT school. I received the letter from UPS yesterday. Luckily I had my friends and Christopher with me, but I'm still pretty upset. Thank you to everyone who was praying for/thinking about me, and I hope that I haven't disappointed anyone. I'm still looking forward to PTA school so I can at least jump into the field, but I know it would have been amazing to attend and graduate from a graduate school. Thanks for all your love and support.

Two 5k's down, 8k to go!

So, guess what? I shaved 3 minutes off of my 5k time this morning! I'm so excited! Today was the St. Patty's Day Run (5k) in Tacoma, sponsored by Bud Light and The Dock Street Landing (Bar & Grill - a great place for bikers, not necessarily down-to-earth runners...ha ha!). The course itself was pretty easy, only about 4 hills, all pretty long, and drawn out, with three at the beginning and one at the very end. And the weather was rainy, but almost no wind except for the occasional breeze, and the rain was pretty weak. With a temperature of about 40, the weather was pretty much perfect for this race, and Courtney who runs a little on the over-heated side! And I made it! I ran without stopping (even on the hills) and finished earlier than last week! What a huge boost to my training and self esteem! I'm pretty excited about it. There was a beer garden afterwards, but well, I'm more of an Emerald Smoothie kinda girl. :) Christopher was there the whole time, and cheered me on before I dashed off, and was there to give me a big high five when I finished. It's was awesome!

Click here for a link to what the course looked like! What's cool is that this gmap pedometer tool actually gives you an idea of the elevation changes too, so you can see how bad the hills are! :)



So now I'm desperately trying to find some races in the area that are longer, and I'm thinking my next race will probably be an 8k in Seattle. No worries, it's close enough, just slightly more hills. :)

Love you all, thank you for all of your love and support!!!

Yay for the 5k!

So I've completed the 5k in one of the hill-yest neighborhoods of Tacoma! It was challenging, and I won't lie, I walked up a couple hills, but overall I think it went really well. I was SO relieved to see that it wasn't snowing when I got there, and in fact the sun was shining and the temperatures were around 40. There was a 10 mph wind that I felt the most when running up the 3rd hill, but other than that it didn't bother me! I was so glad to have completed it, especially running by myself. And on the way out of the Stadium High School football bowl (home of the movie "10 things I hate about you") I received a brochure to run in the inaugural 2009 Bud Light St. Patricks Day 5k in downtown Tacoma next weekend. So I'm signed up for that, and I'm looking forward to seeing some familiar faces. I think the more I do these races around town, the less nervous I'll be about running alone. The adrenaline and heavy breathing of other participants is a good motivator!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

Update

Just wanted to let everyone know, that I heard through the grapevine that I may have to wait another 1-2 weeks before hearing back from UPS about grad school. Bummer.

In other news, I run my 5k tomorrow! Yay!

Well, 4 down, one to go...

I am now waiting for my last letter to arrive, or possibly phone call, from UPS to hear whether or not I've been accepted into any PT program for 2009-10. I'm feeling worn down, but also optimistic since I at least have a back up plan of attending a semi-local community college (in a city named Auburn, funny enough), to get a Physical Therapy Assistant degree. It's a 2 year program that would provide a lot of the same flexibility as a PT degree. I don't like how there's no "step up" type of program, where if you become a PTA there's no way to just take a couple of courses and become a PT, you would have to go back to school for 3 years, just like everyone else. But, in the end, I'll be working with patients in the field of physical therapy, which is what I wanted to do in the first place. So either way, UPS or Green River, I'll be happy.

In running news, I'm excited to start my first of (hopefully) many races this Saturday! My training is going well, and I'm still attempting to run a half marathon in August, but I can't register until May, so I'm a little nervous that I might chicken out. I wish I had someone to run with! But I'm enjoying and exploring the trails that have been carefully placed all around the city of Tacoma in the last few years, and they have proved to be challenging and helpful in my training process. Next step: increase my weight training!

On another small note, Christopher is doing well, though very nervous about getting his latest computer science class project done in the next 9 days! He's been working so hard as his teams' leader, and I'm so proud of how diligent he works when I'm in the apartment cleaning and singing songs from Slumdog Millionaire at the top of my lungs! He's very excited to be done with this current quarter, and the next, so he can finally have his first summer off (of school) in too long! Work is going very well for him too, and he always loves to tell me about his daily computer problem that he fixed or the coolest, latest technology that he's discovered for school. Yeah, I know, what a nerd. :) But he's a cute nerd!

The rest of the Tacoma crew are doing well! Zoe loves to sit on laps during the relaxing evenings, and rub against our legs when we're cooking in the kitchen! Thanks to our friend Jonathan she's become quite the beggar! But she never ceases to make us smile! Brianna is busy with work, traveling to and from Olympia or Seattle whenever needed, and volunteering at a local non-profit healthcare clinic, where's she's really learning a lot! We love our Tuesday evenings of watching Biggest Loser with our friend Sarah, and desperately miss Top Chef on Wednesday nights now that it's over. The past couple outings have been a blast and include watching Slumdog Millionaire at a cute, local theater, a lazy Sunday afternoon trip to Borders, and joining a book club with a bunch of us girls! We're currently reading "Out Stealing Horses," which is not a book I would normally pick up, but still interesting.

Alright, well I think I've said enough. Thanks for staying in touch, everyone! Miss you all tons!!!

Little Update

So I've heard back from UPS and Marquette regarding their receipt of my application, but I won't hear anthing else until the first week of March, unfortunately.

Also, I'm training to run a good 5k on March 7th (Happy Birthday Mom!), and so far it's going really well. I'm trying to balance training for a longer distance run while attempting to improve my time on my 5k. But it's going well!

Meanwhile, Christopher and I have been dating 3 years yesterday! We had a great dinner together, remembering the last 3 years and going through all the pictures that I put in his album last year. But the most romantic of all was his gift of a George Foreman. I couldn't have been more excited! ha ha! No really though, I love him so much, and I look forward to this next year for us!

I miss so many of you lately, and I can't wait to have my next vacation!

Courtney returns to the road...

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know that I'm running in my first 5k since ... well, awhile. So here is the link you can check out the information from one of the sponsers. It's to help out local organizations that support Autism. Anyway, just thought I'd let everyone know! :)

http://www.mvppt.com/news.php?nid=28

Tour through Tacoma

I just wanted to share some pictures of my few hours spent walking around Downtown Tacoma. It was the perfect lazy Sunday afternoon!

For more pictures, click HERE.

Okay, getting a little frustrating...

Alright, I received a letter from Pacific University in Hillsboro, OR "regretting to inform" me yadda yadda yadda. But there are three more schools I'm waiting to hear from, and just in case I'm applying to PTA (Assistant) school in Auburn, WA, which is about 30 minutes away, or 50 minutes by bus. Too many things are riding on this decision!!! Anyway, please pray for the right thing to happen.

Consider it DONE!

I finally finished my Marquette essay and application! Believe it or not I'm finally done with the whole application process! Wahoo!

Melynda Rose

One baby down, One to go!

So my two preggo coworkers are BOTH expecting babies today! Charly we knew yesterday was in the hospital and was induced, however Karlynn surprised us all this morning when she called to say that after checking into the hospital at 5:45 this morning, she had her baby, Melinda, at 8:30 am! This after we just saw her yesterday at work! Poor Charly is doing just fine, but ready for it all to be over with, but as far as we know, every one is healthy and doing great! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! Such an exciting day with two new babies and a new president!

Well,,,time to move on

So I received the letter today that I was not offered an interview at Midwestern University. I'm pretty bummed, and not really inspired about receiving four more letters, but I'm moving on and just trying to keep working hard.

On a positive note, my running is going well. I've increased my speed so I can run 2 miles faster than two weeks ago. So that's nice! And I took a hip hop dance class today at the YMCA with my friend Meredith, and it was REALLY fun!

Hope this post finds you all doing well!

Oh baby!

So for the past 8 months there have been not one, but two pregnant ladies (both physical therapists) in our office. Well, Charly's blood pressure started to increase just ever-so-slightly last week, and when she checked it yesterday it was a tad higher than the doctor had wanted, so she visited her doctor yesteday afternoon, just to make sure things were still going well. Charly is 36 weeks on Thursday, but as of last night she was put on bed rest, and the doctors expect to deliver next week! We're bummed that she can't come to work, but we're SO excited for her and her husband Jeremy! Please pray for them in this next week which could definitly be a difficult time for the two of them!

Happy New Year!

2009 looks to be a challenge and full of new and great opportunities! I'm looking toward to it! Here are some pictures from our party tonight.

The gang's all here!

My and Brittany! It was great to see her!

The spread: pinwheels with spinach/herb and sun-dried tomato/basil tortillas, turkey, ham, pepperjack cheese and cream cheese with chives and onion, wheat thins, chips, salsa, M&M's, Grandma Sue's meatball and bean dip recipes, lil smokies, soda and sparkling cider.

Courtney in her new flip flop apron!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!