Category Archives: Uncategorized

American Sniper

On Friday I went with Chris to see American Sniper.  Chris really wanted to see this movie and I really didn’t think I did but…..

Chris is a pilot in the U.S. Air Force –

returning from a deployment (2011)
returning from a deployment (2011)

In order to live through the things that come with his job (numerous trips and deployments), I prefer to live in a “fantasy world.”  Mostly that means that I don’t watch the news and I steer clear of anything that has to do with war.

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Well, we saw the movie and it sucked me in.  The images of the towns and the people in Iraq were beyond anything I could have imagined.Screen Shot 2015-02-01 at 7.47.19 PM

(I have never asked Chris about what he sees on trips “in country” – once I saw a picture of the base they were staying at and the bomb shelters sort of freaked me out – I never thought about the fact that those might be necessary!!!)

The fear that the people live with every day is awful!  Even the women and children are willing to kill if it means they will be safe.

Screen Shot 2015-02-01 at 7.44.37 PMWatching Chris Kyle (played by Bradley Cooper) and the loyalty he felt for our country really reminded me of how fortunate we are to live in the country we do.  He did 4 tours!!!  That is a lot of time spent away from his family in order to fight for our country.

After the 4th tour he had a hard time adjusting to life at home.  His issue wasn’t learning to live with all the people he had killed but learning to live with the fact that he couldn’t help more people.  He met with a VA doctor who told him there were plenty of people in the hospitals he could help.

Helping the injured veterans try to learn to live again is what ultimately helped him resume his life at home.

And,  it ultimately cost him his life.  Screen Shot 2015-02-01 at 8.01.27 PM

This totally blind-sided me!!  (Remember I live in a fantasy world and didn’t pay attention to the news 2 years ago!!!!)  I completely lost it at the end of the movie.

I cried (the ugly kind because I was trying not to make any noise) through the entire funeral procession.  It was incredible to see the support for an American Hero!!!

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According to Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, February 2 is officially Chris Kyle Day in Texas!!

Have you seen American Sniper?
Did it make an impact on you?  

Happy Monday!

Kim

Top 5 Reasons I Love Blogging!

Screen Shot 2015-01-29 at 9.45.10 PM5.  I love the journal that I now have from the past 2.5 years!!!

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4.  I feel like I can be completely me on my blog!!!

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3.  This might be a weird reason but blogging has helped me become a bit more technically literate.  And, introduced me to the fun that is Instagram!!!

Screen Shot 2015-01-29 at 9.50.40 PM2.  I take way more pictures than I used to (before blogging)!!  In fact,  I just cleaned up my iPhoto and deleted 2000+ pictures that weren’t really pictures of anything.  I still have about 7000 that I need to organize!!!

Screen Shot 2015-01-29 at 9.53.13 PM1.  And, my top reason is definitely all of the incredible people that I’ve gotten to know through blogging.  I would start naming all of y’all but I’m afraid I would accidentally leave someone out so I will just say – all of y’all!!!

What is your #1 reason to blog?

Happy Friday!

Kim

Missing: My Morning Mojo

Somehow in 2015 I’ve lost my morning workout mojo!!!  For about 8 years I’ve gotten up early (4:30-5:00ish) almost every day (weekdays) to workout.  Screen Shot 2015-01-27 at 3.18.11 PMI’m not a morning person but I love working out so it is worth it for me to get up.

Screen Shot 2015-01-27 at 3.21.28 PMThe first week in January I was a little under the weather so I ended up resetting my alarm and getting up at 6:00 since I decided not to work out for a few days while I got some extra rest.  That went on for about a week!!!

Last week, I had my 45 mile run on Wednesday so I didn’t get up early the rest of that week since I took a couple of recovery days.

Now, I just can’t get back in a groove of getting up early and looking forward to working out!!!Screen Shot 2015-01-27 at 3.24.08 PM

I’m hoping that tomorrow is the day that I get back on track!!!  It messes up my whole day when I don’t get up and get my workout done first thing!!!

Have you ever lost your mojo?
How did you get it back?

Happy Wednesday!!

Kim

Binging on Movies

We don’t go to the movie theater very often but we do have quite a large DVD collection at home.  I’m usually way behind on watching movies because I just don’t take the time.

But….last weekend I had to spend most of my time in a darkish room after I had the Blue Light treatment on my face.  Well, it made sense to spend that time watching movies!!!

I thought it would be fun to give  a brief review (without giving anything away if you haven’t seen the movie!!) and my personal rating for each movie.

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This movie was cute but kind-of corny.  Pretty much everything that could go wrong on the night out did.  Funny that Trace Adkins (country singer) was in it – I didn’t know he was acting now.  Probably not a movie I would watch again but I didn’t hate it.

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This movie was one of those that I only half paid attention to.  It sort of bounced around at the beginning and then it was just basically a movie about one person loving the other more.

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I liked this move.  It wasn’t exactly what I expected and I like that in a movie!!!  This movie is set back in a more laid back time – very different from the fast paced life we have today.

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I wasn’t sure what to expect from Dream Girls.  It was made before Jennifer Hudson lost so much weight – weird to see her in the movie compared to how she looks now.  The music was good.  And, this was another movie from a completely different time.  I spent most of this movie working on stuff but I don’t feel like I really missed anything.

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I really enjoyed this movie even though it had some sad points in it.  The whole premise of the movie was good.  I wish that my favorite couple hadn’t wasted so much time but…..

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This was just a silly comedy.  It had some funny parts and some completely ridiculous parts.  Chris watched all of this one with me and I think he enjoyed the humor.  Not sure I would ever watch this one again.

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I loved this movie!!!  There were times that it made me cry and other times that it made me laugh.  It fit into my criteria for a feel-good movie!!!

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I was really looking forward to this movie – I thought it would be super funny.  There were parts that were very funny and other parts that didn’t really make sense.  It was good for a bit of entertainment!!!

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Chris and I watched this movie together.  He loved it and I thought it was a complete waste of time!!!  The last 30 minutes or so I just wanted the movie to be over and done.  Chris watched it 2 more times over the next 2 days (once with Jordan and once with both boys).  All 3 of the boys loved it – crazy!!

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Really I don’t even know if I would give it 1 star!!!

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This movie I loved!!!  I’m always in for a sports themed movie and I really enjoyed the way this one played out.  I actually liked it better than Moneyball!!!

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This was a super cute movie.  There were parts of it that were completely predictable but it was easy to follow.  I enjoyed it and might even watch it again at some point.

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Screen Shot 2015-01-24 at 4.32.40 PMThe Vow was another movie that I really liked.  The fact that it was based off of a true story made it even better.  I don’t know how much was completely factual but I liked the way the movie ended.

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Screen Shot 2015-01-24 at 4.33.43 PMI had read this book so knew what to expect with a lot of the movie.  I don’t know if enjoy is the right word for this movie or not but I did like it.  Actually, Chris watched the beginning with me and then had to leave so I’m sitting here watching it again with him.

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Screen Shot 2015-01-24 at 4.37.23 PMThis was the first movie that I watched during my 45 mile run on Wednesday.  It started out slowly but I stuck with it because I really do love movies based on true life especially sports themed ones.  By the end of the movie I was glad I had watched it!  Screen Shot 2015-01-24 at 4.21.02 PM

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Screen Shot 2015-01-24 at 4.35.30 PMMiracle is one of my all time favorite movies.  I have watched it many times but it never gets old!!!  This was a perfect choice to watch while I was running!!!  My favorite part of the movie is when the team is skating (and skating and skating…) after their first game.  When one of the players says, “Mike Eurozone……I play for the United States of America”  I think I cry every time!  Best line ever!!!

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Screen Shot 2015-01-24 at 4.34.30 PMI finished my run to this movie – what better type of movie to watch than one about one of the all-time great distance runners!!!  Always inspirational!!!

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I really do like watching movies –  not sure why I tend to go ages without watching them and then binge watch!!!

What is one of your favorite movies?

Happy Monday!

Kim

The 45 Mile Run

I started this blog the day I turned 43 to document a year of daily moves/exercises for 43 reps.  Now I’m 45 and in my 3rd year of daily reps – still matching my age.

Even before I did the daily moves, I celebrated my birthday by running my age.Screen Shot 2015-01-22 at 10.42.56 AM

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I reverse aged!!  Just kidding.  This was supposed to be 43 but since I was running with a stress fracture in my left hip this was all I could handle.

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This one was brutal – I walked the last 16 miles and it took forever!!!!

I didn’t do my 45 miles on my birthday in September because I had just done the Patriot’s Run 5 days earlier and Chris was in Germany so I didn’t have a full day to devote to the run.  I had planned to do it during October but I ended up with some weird leg injury that put a damper on my running for awhile.

On Tuesday I decided that it was time to do my run so I told Chris and the boys at dinner that Wednesday would be the day to run.

The first 6-7 miles were brutally long.  It was hard to know that I had well over 6 hours of running still.

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I finally got into a groove and broke the time into 10 minute increments by changing the speed from 6.5 up to 7.0 and back down (0.1) each minute.

I celebrated every single mile:

1 mile Screen Shot 2015-01-22 at 10.52.30 AM and a fist pump!

45 fist pumps and numbers followed by a

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Hunter asked me before I took him to school what I would do when I needed to refill my water bottles (he didn’t want me to cheat!).  I didn’t want to pause the treadmill since it resets quickly from pause so I told him that I would just slow the speed way down.  Plenty of motivation not to get off since I had a time goal!!!

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There were times when I thought about walking but I knew if I started walking I would have a much harder time running again so I just kept running!!!

Around mile 23 I realized that it was a little overwhelming to say 22 to go so I just focused on one mile at a time.  This really helped during the last 10 miles – I told myself that anyone can run 1 mile.

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3 movies got me almost to the end of my run.  I was on the last mile and a half when my 3rd movie ended and I just let the credits roll until I finished.Screen Shot 2015-01-22 at 10.34.11 AM

The time rolled over 3x – total time was 6 hours 35 min and 18 seconds (it took a second to actually hit pause).  I think it averaged out to about 8:45 pace.  And, even though I know it’s not accurate, the calories rolled over at 6000.

Kim

Sweaty and tired but happy!!!

It was a good run – hard but overall I felt good both physically and mentally!!!

Want to join me in running your age?  

Happy Thursday!!

Kim