Monday, August 3, 2015

July 2015 Month In Review


**Recapping my monthly progress serves two purposes: first, it keeps me honest and accountable to my goals; second, it allows me to truly capture just how much work I’ve done over the last year. So let the recapping begin!**

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July!! It's done! It's over. July was the last full month before I start my back to school journey. It's only days until my big 'first day,' so I'm basically a ball of nervous energy, caffeine, and bloody nail beds.


Did I mention I chew my nails when I'm nervous? Because I do. Obsessively.

Anyhoo, this post is about July and the wonderful things that happened in it. Not my raw stubby fingers.

Last month was pretty neat for a few reasons. First, there was the 4th of July and all the celebrations that go along with that.

We flew to St. Louis to visit my family and had a terrific time. When in STL we try to support the best team in baseball - the Cardinals. This time we were able to go see a game from the new Ballpark Village and it was a cool experience.


I don't think I'd do it again, tho - at least not in the mid summer heat. Sheesh it was suffocating out there.

My brother, the Chef, and his adorable Chef Girlfriend made delicious food that blew us away. Then we blew up stuff with fireworks. Cuz that's what you do.


In addition to the 4th of July excitement we went on a major vacation....to ALASKA!

Alaska has always been a bucket list item for us. We love the outdoors and natural beauty so Alaska has been and obvious vacation destination, albeit an expensive one. But this year was special. This year we had a lot to celebrate - law school, birthdays, and anniversaries. In Oct we will be married for 10 years. 10!~ But we knew we'd be unable to do much celebrating in Oct as it's in the middle of my first semester of school. So - we celebrated early with a trip to Alaska!

We booked a 7 day cruise to Alaska and invited our family. Handsome Jack's parents and my parents came along. It was fabulous.

Here are a few pics:




Spectacular, amazing, and wonderful - right? Yeah, Alaska was all those things.

There was another July event that was a way less spectacular and a lot more painful - I went on my first long ride on the back of a motorcycle. It was pure.....TORTURE!!! I like to think of it as the day my butt died.


That thing is not comfortable for long rides. And when I say long I mean LOOOONG. We were gone for 12 hours and 8 of those 12 were spent riding. We ran the gauntlet which is a loop of super curvy roads in the N. GA mountains. The curves were fun and the scenery was beautiful but by the end I was in tears. Everything hurt.


I struggled to walk for the next TWO DAYS! It was intense.

Poor Handsome Jack was so upset by my painful experience that he's already making modifications to the back seat and foot pegs so I can be more comfortable in the future. He's a keeper :)

And the week after that torturous ride we ran a 5k. Woot woot. Nothing like piling pain on top of pain :)

Last, but certainly not least, my lil bro, the Chef, and his adorable Chef Girlfriend swung by for a visit. Adventures ensued. Including shooting the hooch. Which doesn't mean shooting something with a gun or downing a ton of alcohol. Rather, we rode down a section of the Chattahoochee on inflatable intertubes. It's a GA staple. Had to be done. And we had a blast.

July saw a boatload (*see what I did there) of activity in July and I'll admit the activity made it difficult to get writing done. I've been working on my outline for the next project and it's coming together nicely. I believe I'll be able to start the actual writing fairly soon. *jumps up and down* It's been a while since I had a story to work on so I'm very excited.

So here are the details for June 2015:

1 Fabulous trip to STL including family, fun, delicious food, and baseball
1 Amazing, breathtaking, family cruise to ALASKA (with an awesome 8.5 glacier hike on ICE!)
1 extra long, torturous ride on the back of a bike
1 5k
1 visit from family including a tubing trip down the hooch.
10 gym workouts (including personal training, StairMaster - my new fave, as well as 2 yoga classes, and 1 spin class on the boat!)
10 books read for fun *0.0* (My highest number of books read in one month since I began tracking)


And on top of all of that I still had words. Not many, but any words are worth celebrating, right? *does happy dance* This month’s grand total is 7620 words. Which isn't my lowest tracked word count so far this year *yay*. This brings my total ‘tracked’ word count for 2015 to 51,244! Not too shabby.

And as for miles, this month’s grand total is 6.6 miles, bringing my total ‘tracked’ mileage to 190.9 miles. I'm signed up for one more 5k before school starts. It'll be interesting to see how my fitness schedule changes when I'm back in school. *bites nails some more* But that's for another day.

All in all, July was what I wanted it to be - a big happy celebration with friends and family. July was the end of one 'normal' and it's important to celebrate endings. Now, I'm heading into August excited to see what the new 'normal' brings. #NeverGiveUp #NeverSurrender


How are your writing goals coming along?

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