PBS-PR

I have now done 2 5ks since surgery.  Each one has been a new PR in my Post Brain Surgery world; therefore, referred to as PBS-PR.
last week i did the See Jane Run 5k.  The LUNA Chix were there cheering and a few of us did the race.  I thought the flat course and invaluable team support would be a great opportunity to try out my 5k legs!
so lavonne and i raced together.  it was her first 5k since her knee surgery, so she was going to set a PKS-PR - a double win for us!  the race was fun, we chatted the whole time and it was a ton of fun!  it was fun to run through the cheer station and have the LUNA Chix hooting and hollering for us as we went by!

who knew i could jump so high?  Photo courtesy of Brightroom.com

 then this week, a few big things happened.  for one, i organized our closet!  oh my gosh!!  i am so happy to have such a wonderfully organized closet!  a while back eric had put in some dividers on my shelf so my stack of pants would stop toppling over onto my stack of sweatshirts which  could then stop toppling over onto my stack of shorts and random articles of clothing that i would toss up there.  once these dividers were in there (thanks pinterest for the idea!!!) i was soo happy!  organization was happening and my organization juices started to flow!  so we headed to the home depot and picked out a closet organizer unit thing.  two columns of shelves, with a hanging rod between them on top and a 2 level shoe rack and two wire basket like drawers underneath.  this was mostly inspired by my workout gear.  i had always kept it all organized in bags that i would hang on any door knob i could find.  i had my swim bag, my warm weather clycing gear, my cold weather clycing gear and then random running and other crap in a 4th bag.  eric HATED my organization system but it was easy, didn't require folding and i could always find what i was looking for.  but i secretly kind of didn't like it either.  so we spent the whole 2nd half of the day putting the unit together.  ok, so really eric put it together, which i tried really really hard to sit upright instead of lay down while watching him.  once it was built it was so exciting!  i totally reorganized everything.  things i use most often were moved into easy to access locations - what a great idea!!  oh, i love our closet now!!
so i started looking at my most recent betsey johnson acquisitions and how they were still hanging in the pink bag from the store.  oh so sad!! the store is now CLOSED.  so so SOOOOO sad!!!

this is Seamus's prom dress.  I plan to wear it at some point, too.

so the kids and i went to bed bath and beyond and picked up a few fancy garment bags.  i organized all of our "rarely worn" items.  all my Betsey Johnson dresses in one, eric's suits in another.  his dress shirts in a 3rd, my work suits - OMG - they are totally outdated!!! in another, can't beleive i used to wear those on a regular basis - now when i put them on i look like a little kid!  anyway, so much better!!
THEN another idea taken from pinterest to organize my jewelry!  i had been hanging all my necklaces on hooks, but they have been starting to overwhelm me.  especially since i during all my organizing i FOUND a bunch of necklaces from back in the day and they needed a place to go.

this is the photo from Pinterest, i used a cheezy metal curtain rod, but its in the closet and works great!

so after that visit to bed bath and beyond we went to pick up some supplies!! we were going to a BBQ and i was going to bake - thanks again to pinterest!!!
so i made THESE to take:

CARMELITAS!!!

I get them at Whole Foods all the time for lunch.  and oh they are a bit of yummy goodness.  these ones i made didn't have quite enough time to set so they were an oozy amazing mess of chocolate and caramel and omg, SOOO  good.
then I made these:

And wow!  mine did not look like this at all!  probably because we have a ghetto food processor, but they still turned out really good considering they are made of garbonzo beans!!  or chickpeas!!  or whatever you want to call them.  beans/peas, peanut butter, agave, baking powder and chocolate chips.  so yummy and the kids even liked them even though they were ewww-grossing the entire time i was making them.  yummy!!!

oh!!  but FRIDAY i went and got my hair cut!  all of them.  cut off, short like!  i've never had such short hair.  so short that i keep reaching up to take my hair out of the pony tail that isn't there.  it is so incredibly out of my way that i totally love it.  not sure i will necessarily keep it forever but at the same time wondering why i haven't done it sooner.

i don't know why it is on its side, but that is a ton of hairs. its not like my hair was even that long, and then he even cut MORE off after this bunch even!

so all of this organizing and baking and hairs cutting activity helped me face the first time through this whole thing where i was having a "poor me" moment.  all the photos and stuff from Chelan Man were getting me down a little.  I really wanted to go, and the weather looked amazing and I was thinking about that swim and how it was so nice and how that course is so fun.  then i got over it.

so i did another 5k today.  Swedish Hospital, where i had my surgery had a Summer Fun 5k Run/Walk.  LUNA was sponsoring the event, so I was given an entry and I said hey!  that would be fun!  i woke up like hours before my alarm and headed out the door.  i didn't know the course but knew all the roads right around the hospital, and then we were off.  I was talking with some volunteers before the race at registration - this one is big fundraiser for ovarian cancer, but I told them about my brains.  they said they have a brain cancer walk in september.  i don't have the brain cancer.  but i might go do it anyway.  it really is a walk though, only 1 mile long.  i guess ovarian cancer survivors are more likely to cover 3.1 miles than brain cancer survivors?  i don't know.  but i saw the volunteers i was talking to out on the course and they recognized me and cheered for me.  I had my very own cheer station!  OMG though, the whole race was uphill, and that isn't even an exaggeration even though my brains may or may not be slightly compromised.  i talked to several people after and they were also wondering how an our and back course could be uphill both ways!!  but it was fun.  i was happy with my time, took almost 6 minutes off since last week, but it was still over 3 minutes slower than my PR-PR.  it will come.  during the race i was fine but after, i swear all of the blood went right to the incision on my head because it hurt like a mo-fo.  i was pretty sure it was stretching and going to rip open, so i put on my hat and kept it on so i wouldn't squirt brains all over the LUNA people!   i checked when i got home though, and all the brains were intact!  whew!!  so i took a nap! 

yes it was a summer run and i was wearing fleece and a puffy vest!!

tomorrow I am going into work to talk to them about easing back into work.  i get so tired in the afternoons and since no one can predict how radiation will make me feel, especially come week 3, 4, 5 or possibly 6, we need to come up with a plan.  i am pretty excited about it!