I made a Workout Playlist

I often find myself plucking my ipod from its precarious position in mid-stride to scroll through my lists of songs to find the one (the exact one!) that I'm in the mood for at that moment. This is a dangerous proposition at times because of traffic (while outside) and the danger of striding off the tread mil (while inside). Therefore, I have made myself a workout playlist. They often give sample playlists in the fitness magazines I read but more often than not, Self's playlists include Fergie, Brittany Spears, Usher and the other types of music I do not care to listen to let alone that will inspire me to run faster, longer.

 My playlist includes Supermassive Black Hole by Muse, Spotlight by Mute Math, and Rabbit Hearted Girl by Florence + The Machine. I have such Anthem songs like Nothingwrong by Jimmy Eat World and Come Alive by Barlow Girl that are just as much about the words as the beat and the music. I look forward to working out when I look forward to the music. And I enjoy and push myself to every single song instead of skipping around to my favorites, losing my pace. Hello Hurricane by Switchfoot is a solid 7mph  4-minute song that is at once exhilarating & singly exhausting. Depending upon my mood, I'll move this song from the middle-hump to the last good push to get me through. To cool down, I have A-500 from (believe it or not) the Miami Vice (2006) Soundtrack.

I read a blog posted from Aimee, and she'd posted a bunch of slow, pensive songs that get her to or keep her in a creative mood. This made me think about the music that I go to, the music that inspires or relaxes or releases me. God sure knew what He was doing when He created music and we could spend lifetimes studying why these vibrations and tones and beats produce the feelings in us that they do. In those dark places of life, in all those desperate, aching nights and days, all the credit goes to our Father for the light that eventually pulls us out. In my own times of searching and pain, my husband was the face and hands and heart of God. The release, however, was found not only in these two, but also solidly in the music that surrounded me and poured into me during these times. I broke two elliptical machines while pounding out my anguish to Raining Again from Moby. I would turn out the lights in our Hannibal basement and move or dance or whatever it was to Shut us Down by Lindsey Buckingham,  War On Drugs from Barenaked Ladies, Pain from Jimmy Eat World,  and Never Alone by Barlow Girl, and each time I did, I would be reduced to tears.

 

Then, there are all the songs that take our hearts in their hands and imprint themselves on our memories. I remember rolling down the windows with Jered and blasting Imogen Heap's Hide and Seek, both of us singing at the top of our lungs even though at the time, we had no idea what the song was about. I remember the first time I heard the beauty of Fix You from Coldplay. I remember the hilarity of the first time I heard Jered sing 4 Non Blondes's What's Going On. Or even recently when Jered played Rolling in the Deep from Adele and with one look at each other, we both knew that we both felt it. It. That Whatever It Is that pulls at our souls when we hear something that moves us.

Anyway. All that to say that I've been thinking about music and I finally made a workout playlist.

I'm not a slacker

I promise I'm not a slacker. Quite the contrary in fact. So. Life these past two weeks has been hectic and crazy. I can barely recall what we've even been up to. Aunt Charlotte was in town the first full week of June. Cousin Rachel, her husband Josh, and their little baby were all in town as well along with Cousin Alicia & her boy so we had a family gathering on the 6th right before Dad & Lisa left for Italy. Grandpa & Grandma Marian also made the dinner so it was quite the group! I did take some photos there & Jered got a couple good ones of me & Lisa and me & Grandma Marian.

This past week was filled with Family Portraits & house sitting for Dad & Lisa. House sitting is fun although we aren't home very much in the first place and then as busy as we were last week, we weren't in their home much either! But we did feed the Rocky Dog and we vacuumed the pool & swam on Wednesday. Too bad it rained Thursday & Friday was filled with work. But we were glad to help and drink some of their Diet Pepsi (thanks!)

I'm almost done with La Lacuna. It's a fabulous read. Very much enjoying it. Wish I had more time to devote to it. Most people have summer reading lists. I have winter reading lists because there's nothing else to do in January than curl up with a good book. Summer's far too busy! It's a wonder I get any reading done this time of year. Reading by the pool once or twice a week. That's about it.

It's 10:10 at night and I should sleep. Mom & I photographed a wedding today that lasted from 9am to 9pm. Quite the day! Here's a snippet before I leave you.

Yes. This is the KC skyline taken from the top of the Western Auto Building. Yes, it is 4:00 in the afternoon in this picture in broad daylight and it is 100 degrees on this rooftop. They were troopers, though. I'll give them that!

That's the back of the Western Auto sign! That's just so stinkin' cool!

Okay. So I'm really done now. Sleep is good.

The last four days

Thursday. Youth Lock-In. All the kids began arriving at 9:30 that morning and we immediately set them to work. Some kids grilled lunch. Some kids moved firewood. Some kids painted and other kids swept and mopped the church. It was a youth project first and a lock-in last. The majority of them had fabulous attitudes about the entire thing. Really!

After lunch, we went to the park and played Sand Volleyball. Each kid had a red or green number written on their hand at the start of the day. The first volleyball game was red v. green. The second game was odd numbers v. evens. The third game was girls v. boys. Jered played in all three games but I limited my involvement to just the last. Those girls needed help!

After volleyball, we went to the pool (to cool off!), bowled a couple hours, then had dinner at I-Hop. When we got back around 9:30, that's when the real lock-in began complete with bball, Wii, Hand Painting (and self, as you can tell), and other various activities.

The boys slept in the sanctuary on pews. The girls were in the children's nursery. Girls brought sleeping bags. The boys needed no such convenience. . .

I personally forced myself to sleep on the couch in the youth room at 2am. It wasn't the best sleep ever but it was enough. Friday brought a long day of rest &  Bridal shoot in the evening for me. That was a trip and a half! Let's just say that I really should've remembered that Buzz Under the Stars was Friday @ Rivermarket *before* I led the caravan down there for Bridal photos. Let's just say that we wound up driving up to 39th st for our "urban" shoot after all. At least we did get some really, really nice photos at Union Station first. Plus, 39th st has some absolutely stunning locations if you have a good eye and creative spirit-- which thankfully my bride that evening also shared :)

Here's a photo I shot in the bathroom while Tracy was getting dressed in her bridal gown & I was testing my flash.

Saturday morning dawned bright and warm as Jered and I awoke at 5:50am and hurried down to Crown Center for the Hospital Hill run. We parked at some random lot on Broadway about half a block south of Pershing. Not a bad spot, really. We walked to Pershing & Grand and really only had about five minutes before the race actually began. My heart was pounding but I was all In The Zone and as the crowd of 7,000 surged forward and my walk toward the Start line turned into a brisk walk and then a jog and then finally, a run, I felt good. No side splits. No cramping. Just a good solid flow of people, some running and some walking, all heading in one long surging force down Grand blvd toward Power & Light. Boy, that first hill lasts FOREVER. It's a good thing I'd been training on hills and it's actually a good thing that I'd done a lot of my running in the afternoon when it was a little hotter than usual because it got hot. Fast. We weren't supposed to wear headphones since we were running on the street & all, but really, I didn't notice the silence because there were just so darn many people, it kept my mind occupied.

I only slowed to a walk once to get a gulp of water and the second time during a 45-second or so moment of despair when we passed the 2 mile marker and I realized I wasn't as close to the finish line as I'd thought. With no music to mark my time, the course seemed longer & also shorter than it was at different times. At mile 2, it definitely seemed to last forever. This was just before the last long hill and the long downhill that looped to the end of the 5 K race. When I turned that corner that took me off the 10k & half marathon course, I thought to myself, Thank You, God that I'm only running the 5k. When I saw the finish line in sight, everybody around me (including myself) picked up our pace and pushed ourselves faster towards and over the line. As soon as I crossed that line, I slowed to a walk, braced my arms behind my back and saw my vision swim a bit as my stomach turned. Puke factor. I'd heard of this. Jered was there with camera in hand as I picked up a towel to wet, water to drink and a medal to wear. They gave the runners bananas and power bars and pretzels and flip flops. I also got a bbq sandwich that before the race I thought I would certainly never eat at 7:45 in the morning. I'm here to say that I sure did.

My time was 34 minutes and that was almost exactly my training time had been up to that point. So taking into account my lack of restful sleep, the 80 degree heat at 7:30 in the morning and the incredible hills that give this run it's name, I was pretty darn proud of my time & my run. And of course, we'd barely walked back to the car before we were plotting the next run in the fall and Jered was making plans to train with me. He picked up a post-card for a 15k and my first thought was, No Way. My second thought was, Why Not? We'll see, I guess.

Not to forget that 2 1/2 hours after we left Crown Center, I left the house to go photograph a wedding. I haven't touched the photos from that wedding yet except for one and I thought I'd share that one real quick as the photographic representation of a large chunk of my weekend. This wedding was pretty laid back. Mom met me there and assisted me. I was very grateful for her help because I couldn't keep myself from yawning several times throughout the day. She was great at rounding up the various family members who kept slipping away from pictures because I simply didn't have the energy to want to do such things. Brittany & Cody were a great couple, though, and were quite appreciative. Plus, I was home by 5pm and when does that ever happen on a Wedding Shoot? It was a blessing for me for sure!

Today was a pretty relaxing day, thankfully. I was in a good mood. Our airconditioning which hadn't been working the past three days finally kicked in last night and I got to help out with the 2s & 3s today during service. This meant we put stickers on things and listened to a bible story then played with Play-Dough for a half hour. Then after church, Jered and I had lunch with Jami & Michael and we wound up hanging out at Wendy's for like 2 1/2 hours. They're a great couple. We definitely enjoy our time with them.

So that was our past four days. Tomorrow we're going to Dad & Lisa's to swim and see Aunt Charlotte, Rachel & Kennedy (our littlest second cousin) who are in town. I'm looking forward to getting off work at 12:30 and then just chillin' the entire rest of the day. True That!

Youth Pics & Dave & Buster's

Pictures!!! Okay. First, here's one from youth group not this past Sunday but the Sunday before. The 22nd if I recall correctly. Jered was trying to get a youth group picture. It's a good picture of him, though, so that's why I'm posting it.

 The same Sunday was Sunday Nite @ the Park. We played volleyball. Adults vs. Youth. Adults dominated. This was our team after Jered and I called it a night. Good times.

we're awfully good at this ol' turn the camera around and take a self portrait style of photography. . .

Okay. So tonight Jered was supposed to do a Video Engagement session with this couple from Topeka. But it rained. So they postponed it. Then, Youth Group was canceled due to Pastor Joe being out of town and none of the other kids saying they were going to be at youth. We'd planned on hanging out with Michael & Jami from the youth group after Wednesday service but since youth group was on hiatus, we decided to hang out with them earlier. They invited us out to Dave & Buster's. I'm sure everybody in America has heard of/been to this place but this was our first time. Jered and I shared a cheeseburger and fries and we all played billiards (girls won. . . whoohoo!) and we did fake racing and played skee-ball and all other sorts of stuff. Very cool. And also it was just a good time hanging around Michael & Jami. While the boys did some racing game, Jami & I tried our hand at the claw game. Okay. I stank big time. But Jami won three little stuffed animals-- two identical stuffed kitties and a stuffed dog-- and she gave me one of the kitties that I promptly named Max. So here's Max meeting Jade:

Jade took the toy by the ear and tossed it into the air again and again and again. You'd think there was catnip or something inside this thing.

Max safely away from the ferocious stuffed-kitty-eating cat.

It was a grand time had by all. And I'm glad to have posted the youth pics from above. Tomorrow's the Youth Lock-In so even though it is only 8:30 we're going to hit the sack. There will be MUCH to blog about after this weekend. If I'm still alive and able to type that is, but that is for another day.

Peace!