Long time, no post!

Well, hello there. I'm glad you're still following and haven't completely given up on me. I have a lot to update you on!


Friday
Friday I woke up nice and early to get the last of my packing done and then head to the gym for training with Emily at 10:00 a.m. It was my last training session with her and she kicked my butt, per usual. I didn't do much cardio beforehand or afterwards, but that was okay with me because I had Chi Running training with Ken Andrews, We spent a little over two hours together, during which I learned the very basics of chi running. We spent a lot of time going through the proper form and then we did a tiny bit of running. I learned a lot and I'm really excited to actually go out and do some running.


After running, I got some lunch for Alicia and myself and then headed home to take a look at the packing situation.

After we finished up packing, Alicia took me to the UHaul place where I spent a half hour hassling with the reservation people and then came home to shower before running over to Jenna's house to see her, her husband/my husband Tyler, and her parents.

And they fed me! Mrs. Brown made some awesome chicken, a great pork roast, and a bunch of delicious veggies! Here's a photo that doesn't allow you to see pretty much anything...

After enjoying an awesome meal and great company, I headed back to my apartment to pack all of my belongings in the UHaul with the help of Alicia, Mark, and my mom. It took us about two hours, but I'm glad we didn't have to pack and unpack all in the same day. After packing, I headed to my mom's house for the night.


Saturday
I woke up nice and early to get on the road at 9:00 a.m. with Mark, Alicia, and my mom. Mark drove the UHaul with me and my mom drove Alicia in her van. We got to Grand Rapids around 11:30 a.m. where Matt was waiting for us. We got everything unloaded in about an hour and then had some Jimmy John's for lunch. Yum! And while we were relaxing, I snapped some photos of everyone who helped me move!

My mom and Alicia (who is constructing my bookcase) 

Matt who got to help Mark move all the big stuff

Me and Mark looking oh so enthused

After my internet was set up by the Comcast guy, we headed back to Midland and both Mark and Alicia headed home while I returned the UHaul. Then I did more packing up of my apartment and headed to my mom's house for one last night of no unpacking. 


Sunday
Once again, I headed back to my apartment in Midland to grab more stuff and then I drove to Grand Rapids. Once there, I made my bed and napped. I woke up and headed to Matt's house so he could feed me.

We had chicken salad with beans and potatoes. Yum! We also made a trip to Wayland for ice cream and to visit with Matt's friend Kylee. Then we headed back to his house so I could bully him into finally signing up for his GRE. I'm pretty sure he hated me for that. Whoops! But I left before he could do me any real harm and went straight to bed.


Monday
This was the first day I started truly unpacking. My friend Curt came over and lined my kitchen shelves (which was freaking awesome because I hate doing that) and helped me move some of my big stuff. We also went to lunch at Marie Catrib's and then it was back to unpacking. Curt headed back to work (he worked a split) and then I went to my orthodontist appointment. 


I saw two orthodontists who were both impressed by my completely open bite. But the good news is that they recommended Invisalign rather than conventional braces. They asked if I was okay with that. Uh, making my braces less obvious? Sure!


After my appointment, I headed to the mall where Matt's sister Heather gave me an awesome haircut. I did a tiny bit of shopping for my white coat ceremony and then finally headed home to finish up unpacking my kitchen and bathroom. Then it was time for bed!


Tuesday
I decided to get up early and head to a new gym. I met with Scott at MVP Metro Club in downtown Grand Rapids. He was a great help in setting up my membership and took me on a quick tour of the facilities. The gym was really nice and decently-equipped. However, I was the only person there. Anyway, let me tell you a bit more about it. On the first floor they had their group fitness rooms. On the second floor was all their cardio equipment including treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes. On the third floor was their weight room.


I decided I would stick with some cardio and headed to the second floor. All of the machines were touch screen with extended cable, and, though I thought this would be awesome, it was actually kind of crappy because you couldn't do any preset programs and it didn't track your stats - the screens just went back to television show you were watching. I tried programming the treadmill, elliptical, and stationary bike and they all only let you do quick start programming. There was no staff around to ask so I gave up and headed up to the third floor and did about 45 minutes of weights. I was a tad disappointed by their lack of machines and left upset that I signed up for a membership.


I came home to shower and then headed to Ann Arbor for lunch with Stephen and Noel before heading to IKEA where I met up with Anthony and bought a desk. I don't have any pictures from the day because I left my camera. Womp, womp.


On my way back to Grand Rapids, I did a major grocery shopping trip at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods in Ann Arbor. I spent quite a bit of money, but hopefully I'll have lots of really good quality food for a while. Then I finally headed home. However, I realized that I could stop and see my sister's apartment in East Lansing so I didn't home until a little after 11:00 p.m.


Once home, I unpacked the cooler and headed to bed.


Wednesday
Today I woke up around 9:00 a.m., showered, and signed up for some med school stuff. Then I talked to the people at the skydiving company who told me that the weather may not hold until 6:00 p.m. when Allyson and I were scheduled to jump. So, we pulled some strings and met in Mount Pleasant at 2:15 so we could jump out of a perfectly good airplane for fun. Allyson brought my mom and both her parents with her. So, here are some pics from my adventures today!

The baby plane we jumped from 

Getting suited up

I thought this picture was so funny 

Ready to jump! Well, maybe we should have a parachute...

Allyson and Jake (we did a tandem jump)

Me and Scott, the man I was attached to

Dancing because I was so excited

Making Allyson dance with me

Me and my mom before I risked my life

Allyson and I demonstrating how to arch properly when you jump out of the plane 

Me!

Coming in for the landing 

Woo! Allyson coming in for her landing

The first time we saw each other after falling 11,000 feet 

Hugging because we were still alive and able to!

Celebrating our jump

After our jump, we went out to dinner with our respective parents and had a drink to celebrate. So how was it? It was pretty awesome! The free falling part of it isn't anything like a roller coaster - your stomach never drops. But it's definitely fast (and loud)! You cover about 5,000 feet in 35 seconds. Then you pull the 'chute and it's super quiet. Scott did a few fun spins with me and he videotaped the whole thing. So, in about 5-7 days, you can look forward to a video of me jumping from an airplane.


After dinner, my mom and I went to meijer (the meijer here is so much less confusing than the ones in Grand Rapids!) and then shortly after getting home, Allyson and I decided to hit up the Midland County Fair. However, we were less than impressed and left after Allyson bought an elephant ear.

We headed back to her house and hung out for a bit before I headed home to do a huge update for you all! I'll be heading back to Grand Rapids tomorrow and doing yet more moving, so hopefully I won't be too tired to update you guys again!

I had a lovely hiatus

Hello again, fabulous followers! Sorry for missing so many days. Well, I'm not really that sorry for missing so many blog days because that means I was doing something outside of my apartment! On Wednesday and Thursday, I hung out with Allyson because she's on Spring Break. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I was in Ann Arbor visiting with all my friends still in school. So, I'm sorry for those of you who are addicted to my blog (Lisa), but I promise my life is super boring this week, so you'll have plenty to read!

Today, I was motivated only by the heat to go the gym. I turned my AC on yesterday night (it was 81°F in Midland!), but turned it off when I went to bed (I'm cheap). I woke up at 5:00 and set my alarm back to 7:00 a.m., but decided that if I got up, I could turn the AC on and not have to go about my morning routine all sweaty. So, I went to the gym at 5:00! Hooray! Haven't done that in forever a week. And since I went on Monday, I know I can go on Tuesday. It's just really freaking hard to get out of bed that early on a Monday.

I had a good, sweaty workout this morning since the community center was really humid. Then I came home and made some breakfast.

I was out of defrosted sausage, so I only had a few as opposed to my typical dozen or so. But really, I could cut down on them if I wanted to because I wasn't super starved when I got to work. I did have a South Beach diet bar way earlier than usual, but that was actually good because then I was able to have some of my organic tangerines which were amazing.

After a morning spent doing everything as slowly as possible so as not to run out of things to do, I came home and was super excited to make myself a salad because I finally got the world's best salad dressing! They had it at the meijer in Ann Arbor. It was awesome! I threw in the leftover chicken from the dinner my mom made me last night and I also had some sushi that I got at Trader Joe's. The lunch was absolutely amazing!

After lunch, I did some more work as slowly as possible and then got a bit more stuff to do as the day was coming to an end. Then I headed to the gym for training with Mark. But I didn't take my knee braces. Why? Because when I wore my right one this weekend, it cut into my skin by my knee and rubbed my thigh raw at one point. So I wanted to let those cuts heal a bit more before applying pressure on the exact same areas. I tried to explain this reasonable decision to Mark, but he wouldn't budge from his mad-at-Danika mood. Fine. I'll wear the damn things on Wednesday.

After training, I ran to meijer to get some shampoo and some vanilla almond milk to mix with some protein and ended up spending $50 [I feel as though that sentence can be read as I mixed shampoo in my protein. So you know, I didn't. I typically only use shampoo for my hair...]. Back to the point. I spent $50 at meijer when I really only wanted two things. How does that happen? I also bought a cheese grater (I bought some awesome block cheese at Whole Foods this weekend), some soap because it was on sale, those magic eraser things (that seriously erase everything), some air freshener because it was also on sale and some more South Beach diet bars since I eat two of those a day. So...yeah, I guess that's how that happens...

Once I was home, I made some of Trader Joe's gnocchi and had another salad! I love salad now that I have an awesome dressing! And to be honest, it's not that bad for you. It's got 60 calories per serving and only a few grams of fat. For a dressing that delicious, I'd consider that freaking awesome.

Now, if you were using your keen observation skills you would notice that all of my pictures are taken on a wooden surface. This is my kitchen table. Well, the one part of my kitchen table that isn't completely covered with crap. So tonight I decided to clean my kitchen. Tomorrow I shall clean my bathroom. Wednesday I will clean my bedroom. Thursday I will do my floors. My apartment is going to be ridiculously clean. For a day or so... Anyway, here are pictures of my kitchen before it was thoroughly cleaned:

And afterwards...

Much better! And to celebrate my clean kitchen, I cleaned my organic strawberries that I got on sale at Whole Foods and are most likely going to be the best strawberries of my life.

Yum, yum, yum. They will be an awesome treat tomorrow.

Also: quick life update! I'm going skydiving!!! The company my boss used when he went this past October had a Groupon last week. Normally, you'd pay $225 to go, but my ticket only cost me $119! That's awesome! There's no date set yet since my boss organized the outing with people from work, but I coaxed Allyson into going and she's going to bring her girlfriend, too. That makes me even more excited because I won't only be with work people.

Now it's your turn. Life updates?

Back from my Blog Hiatus!

Don't worry, thousands of fans few friends, I am back! Sorry I didn't keep up, but for once, I had stuff to do! I know, it's as shocking to me as it is to you.


First of all, my interview went well, I think. We shall officially find out in 4-6 weeks. Everyone at the interview was very nice and I met some great candidates. There was even one guy who was a personal trainer! We got to talking, and it was fun to pick his mind a bit. But my favorite part about interview day was that afterwards, I met up with Bush again!

She was out at a bar with her co-workers celebrating St. Patty's day. So, we both got some festive drinks (since we don't like green beer).

It was some kind of minty concoction. It was kind of strange because they added butterscotch schnapps, but it was pretty, and I drank all of it anyway. Then, because lunch was lasagna (I don't like lasagna), we got some food too. It wasn't that healthy, but we split it so that's good!

I didn't spend a lot of time with Señorita Bush because I had a pretty bad headache, so I headed home. However, instead of going straight home, I decided to go pick up my HTC Thunderbolt at Best Buy since it also came out Thursday. This phone is amazing! Thus, rather than going to bed to rest up and feel better, I stayed up for another three hours playing with it.


Friday was a really rough day at work. There was a lot of tension between departments and I didn't feel like being in such a toxic environment all day. But I was going to meet up with my mom after work, so that helped me get through it. We met at the mall to go shopping (for her) and then we went to dinner at D'Alessandro's, this nice Italian restaurant in town. I got gnocchi. It was all kinds of deliciousness.

And because the portions were large, I ate the other half for lunch on Saturday. It's not as pretty though...

Saturday, I had training with Mark because I didn't train all week and wanted to get in some good gym time. During this time, I discovered I have no core whatsoever and I have decided to do some planks on a bosu ball everyday to start strengthening it up. We'll see how this goes. It could be mildly embarrassing...


After the gym, I hit up meijer to grab some potatoes for the dinner I was making for Alicia (she was home for the weekend!). I also decided to pick up some stuff for a salad since the feta was on sale and so was the raspberry vinaigrette dressing. 

The salad wasn't very good because the dressing was gross. So, if anyone wants it, it's up for grabs. But, I was able to make a yummy dinner for Alicia and me!

Alicia

We had lemon pepper chicken, garlic herb potatoes and green beans. It was yummy. Then we headed off to babysit Carrie's FOUR kids. Carrie is one of my co-workers and her babysitter canceled on her Friday afternoon. And since it seems that she never does anything fun that's just for adults, I volunteered my services (and dragged Alicia along). Thank God Alicia's good with kids. There were 2 two-year-olds, a five-year-old and a seven-year-old. Yikes. That was birth control enough for me.


We stayed at Carrie's pretty late so I came home and collapsed in bed and slept for a good 10 hours. Today I wasn't feeling very well most the morning/early afternoon. I started to feel better around 2 and decided that since there was only an hour left of the gym being open, I would go get some new gym shorts (I had a coupon for $15 off), return some stuff to Best Buy, and have my emerald ring sized down. Now, I know weight comes off in weird places, but around my finger? I went from a size 9 to a size 7.75. Weird. But yay for little (very little) victories!


After coming home, I made myself another salad and hoped that it would be better than yesterday's since I decided to use Italian dressing. It was only okay. Anyone have good dressing recommendations? I think that's what's holding me back from achieving true salad mastery.

I did some medical terminology for a bit this afternoon and finished the chapter on pregnancies and birthing. I'm definitely not going to be an obstetrician or gynecologist, that's for sure.


I spent most the evening talking with friends online and on the phone, so I kind of skipped dinner. Not because I was thinking about it, I just wasn't hungry. I had snacked on some stuff around 5 so there was no need. But, I did munch on some strawberries and grapes while I explained the basics of the cardiovascular system to Cohen, my friend that I [ironically] met in human physiology.


Anyway, that about sums up my weekend. I hope yours was good too! I'll be sure to post everyday this week about the tortures of waking up at 5:00 a.m.

Anything you want to hear about specifically? I don't want to lose the interest of my thousands few readers!

MS - Please say U want me!

This morning I woke up nice and early and tested out my knees a bit to see if going to the gym would be a good idea. I decided against going because I didn't want to throw my knees out of whack before going to MSU for my interview. But, I did do a weigh in this morning...and it's good news!

If you can't remember from last week, I've lost four pounds! Happy dance!!! Only 1.6 more pounds until I've lost a whopping 30 pounds.


Breakfast was some eggs and ham and then I headed off for another poopy day at work.

I had a quick reprieve from work to come home and have a quick lunch.

After lunch, it was back to the grind. Gross. But after work, I grabbed dinner from Big Apple Bagels, one of my favorite places to eat.

It was a turkey and havarti sandwich on an everything bagel with a little smear of chive and onion cream cheese. Delicious! And because Big Apple Bagels is right next to the best bakery EVER, I went and got a festive cookie.

They're my favorite cookies in Midland. But I only got one. Normally I'd get two. So, progress!


After dinner, I went to get my nails done for my interview and then drove to East Lansing. Though I still feel out of my element in enemy territory, I did get to see my Bush! Hooray!

She lives right by East Lansing because she teaches in Dansville. You can call her Señorita Bush (she teaches Spanish). That's what I like to call her. We were having a struggle time taking a good picture, so we tried taking pictures in the mirror, but Bush decided that it would be better to turn the light off. Yeah...really worked out...

Super pretty. Almost as pretty as this one of just Allyson...

And the good news is that I get to see her again tomorrow! So, Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you tomorrow. Imagine me sober, nervous, and praying to God that MSU wants me to go to their school.


Are you planning on becoming Irish for a day? Do you like green beer?