SO – As many of you know….this past year has been a year of change for me.  Almost a year ago, I had Gastric Bypass surgery.  Feb 5th will be my one year.  (already!)  It has really flown by.  I have already lost more than half of what I need to lose.  I want to lose 175 lbs from my highest weight.  The weight I want to get down to, I chose from the BMI chart.  It is the highest for “Average” weight for my height.  So far I have lost 120 lbs.  According to the BMI Chart, I started as “Extremely Obese” and now I am simply “Obese”.  I have 30 more lbs to lose before I am just “Overweight”.

One of the things that I have come to enjoy the past year is doing 5K’s.  I like the challenge and seeing my time approve at each race.  Now that it’s cold outside, I find that I’m going to be taking a couple months break from this.  I signed up for the New Years 5K.  I thought what a great idea and great way to start the year and make a commitment to myself to have a healthier, more active year.  I knew it’d be cold, but this winter has turned out to be a really cold one.  When I entered and WON the trip for the 5K I was so happy that I wouldn’t have to run the race in the cold and that I was able to choose a city to go to that I could visit someone I had been wanting to see for a while.

New Years Eve I’m used to going to my friend, Dawn’s, house and playing board games, but this year I was rushing to get signed off work and get to the airport early enough to get checked in and on the plane to fly to Phoenix!  We stuffed our suitcase the night before and on lunch break that day was trying to think of what we might of forgotten to throw in.  Thank goodness Tommie had more time than I did to take care of last minute things.  I was a ball of nerves just thinking of everything that could go wrong, but once we got through check in and had time to sit down before the plane boarded, all my worries just fell away.  Here is a picture from that time:  Ha ha

Once we got to Phoenix it took a while to get our bags and car rented and we were just ready to find the hotel and rest.  The hotel was nice and had the things I had requested from the agent.  (I wanted free breakfast and a fridge and microwave in our room)  It was about 10 minutes from where the race was being held the next morning.  We got out to the race site early, since we still had to pick up our gear and check in.  It was easy to find and it was a little cool, temperature wise, but it was perfect running weather!!  I went around and got my freebies from what they were handing out and took a few pictures, then we went back to the car and changed into our race shirts.  The race wasn’t “officially” timed, but they had a clock at the finish line, and I used my phone app.  From what I could tell, I finished the race in about 40 mins and Tommie finished in 44.  Looking back at my other races, I think this was my fastest time yet!  The coarse was flat for the most part.  It was very nice.

NOW – the main reason I chose Phoenix is because my cousin, Eric, lived there and I have wanted to go see him for the longest time and just haven’t made it.  Last time we saw each other, I was 21 and he was 17.  We had kept in touch online, here and there, but in that time, this was the first opportunity to see each other.  I had never been to Phoenix.  (Well, I think I went when I was too young to remember, but that doesn’t count)  I really enjoyed the city!  I think if I had to chose somewhere else to move, that this would have to be it!  Most everyone we came in contact with was very friendly.  The city was mostly flat, (making it great for walking and/or riding bikes) and it was surrounded by little mountains that popped up from the otherwise flat landscape.  All the roads were like 6 to 8 lanes wide and I had no stress, whatsoever of driving there.  There were a few confusing spots I came across, but for the most part, I felt very comfortable driving there.  Now, I have no idea how miserable it is in the summer, but being there in the winter was very pleasant!

I didn’t see as much as the city as I would’ve liked, but I did get some visiting in.  It was good to catch up with my cousin, Eric and meet his girlfriend, Calandra.

We mostly just visited at their house.  We did go a few places though.  They took me down to the First Friday’s that they have in Phoenix.  Artists are out there selling things and some bands play.  We have something similar in KC, but I have never went to it.  Eric had a friend that sells his paintings there and when he described them to me, I thought it would be something neat to see.  http://kirkohara.com/  He paints all his painting with his mouth, due to a disease he was born with that limits his use with his hands.  His paintings are wonderful.  I ended up buying two poster prints.  It was hard to find parking down there, but we eventually got lucky and found a space not too far.  We also ended up going out to eat with them several places, a Mexican place, a 50’s diner and an American Indian Fry Bread House.  They were all good.  We had also eaten at several places, just the two of us.  They had a lot of places to eat in Phoenix that we don’t have here.  The last night Calandra drove us up to the top of “South Mountain”.  We got there just in time to see the sun set and we could see the lights of the city from up there.  It was very beautiful.  Tommie got sick while we were out of town, so he was feeling bad by then, but I LOVED it.  If I lived there, I’d have to go back and explore that more!

Something neat happened while I was there.  I know not everyone believes in the afterlife, but I’ve always been open to the possibility of it.  I was sitting in Eric’s living room and talking with him and I saw a hummingbird flying around outside his sliding back door.  It flew up to the door and then it landed on the couch that was right outside, then it proceeded to fly around out there for a while and land in a few places before flying off.  When I first saw it I said “Oh look!!!!  A hummingbird!”  Eric just said “Are you kidding me?”  Then he told me about talking with his Dad’s widow and she said when she had talked to a medium, the Medium had told her that Uncle Kenny sent hummingbirds around when he was saying “hi”.  He said it had been a long time since he had seen one and had nothing out there that would attract one.  He said his father had been a bird watcher.  SO – anyway, that gave us a good feeling.  I thought “Uncle Kenny is happy that we’re together again for a visit after all this time.” 😀

I enjoyed my time there and it is some place that I’d like to go back to some day.  It was very hard to come back to Kansas City knowing that it was going to be snowing and have temperatures in the single digits and negative digits.  On the way back, in Phoenix, they had the full body scanner we had to go through at the airport.  Tommie denied going through it and went for the full body pat down.  They were nice about it though and explained everything as they were doing it.  Luckily we left early to get to the airport though, because we needed it with the long lines everywhere there.  We are very spoilt with our KC airport.  When we got home and opened the suitcase I also had a slip in there that our luggage had been opened and searched.  Good thing they got it back closed, because I really had to work to get everything jammed in there.  Haha.

Now that I’m home, I have a LOT to get done this month and also have to get back on track with my diet and exercise.  Thanks for reading my blog and checking up with me.