It really is the little things

I got zero running in this week thanks to cold and snow and more cold.  That use to not be an excuse for me because I loved running in the cold.  In fact, the colder the better in my opinion in the olden days.  Now, my body and my mind don't dig extreme cold or missing any and all sleep I can get to run.  I hate that this is where I am at but here we are, thanks peri.  I was discussing with my running partners how we have all had big gaps of low motivation and I am not sure why it is universal right now amongst many of my friends.  I keep thinking it is left over fatigue from having a month-long battle with the Flu, but I am wondering if it is something more.  I still have my lab work for my yearly to complete and maybe we will find something there.  Here are some pictures from my week minus running.  Enjoy.

She loves her daddy with all her heart.  It seriously is so cute to see our dogs worship Tony for once instead of me.  

Thanks to low sleep all week due to club drama, I was living on teas from BrickHouse Nutrition.  KillaTrav is seriously my favorite.  Please give us one more year Travis!   We love you in Kansas, plus bonus, I love seeing Taylor at the games.

We knew this was a possibility but was hoping it wouldn't be.  Andrew doesn't fit into either of his medium cars.  He is probably pushing 5 foot 4 now and with his helmet on, his head was touching the frame.  Hoping we can sell both of his mediums so we could possibly get another large to go with the large we have.  If not, we may just have one car for a bit :(

Tried the biggest marg out there to help me sleep. Did not help.  Sigh.  Not loving the fact that I am having issues getting to sleep every night.  Need stress to calm the F down a little bit so I don't get so sleep deprived.  

Have a teen is so weird.  Yes, he isn't quite 13 yet but he sure does act like one already.  So much attitude lately, but still sweet enough to apologize when I call him out on it.  Hopefully things will stay that way.   

Lab lunch and hopefully some tensions released.  Not good that my safe place has also started being a source of stress.  Not exactly sure what is going on, but the company wants a lot out of R&D and we are only so many people at this point due the recent layoffs.  Add in my boss is only 4 months away from having her third baby and our other R&D boss is new and still trying to find his footing and you could possibly have big issues.  I'm trying to keep my head above water, to worry about what I can control, and to keep doing my job the best I can and show my value to the company.  Now is certainly not the time to be a new scientist in either the federal or state space with funding so up in the air and firings happening daily, so I need to stay put as long as I can.  Plus, I genuinely love what I am doing right now and the stories we are creating with our data and the truly amazing product we have that help cows live better lives.  It's easy to work hard and stand behind a company when you feel so strongly about the product you are helping create and put on market.

I will end on this.  Yes, I am super stressed about what is going on with our racing club.  What's new right?  We have an all-new board, some board members who were key have quit right before the season starts, and there are lots of rumors swirling.  I am doing my best to get the new board members on board and using their resources wisely.  It's hard because we have so much new blood in the club now that hasn't been around as long as some of us and they don't understand the why.  I spent most of Saturday helping and will have more work next weekend as we welcome new rookies to the club.  Once again overall I know we will get through this, it may just be bumpy for a bit and we may need a big bit of grace on race day, something that most club members aren't great at.  

Have a great week y'all!  I am looking forward to actually getting some runs in next week due to the warmer weather.

Hopefully the last time

Hi from snowy Wisconsin.   I am hoping this is our last trip, but I am not holding my breath.  I am tired of the sleeplessness even if it is for a paycheck.  I am too old for this!  Thank goodness my coworkers are much younger than me because they had to help me out big time.  Apparently, my body said not even just no but hell no to no sleep.  I seemed to have gotten a migraine on day 2, the night/day I was to take the 12-3 am shift.  While I thought I would just collapse and sleep it off, my body decided an hour in to make me feel like total crap and puking did not help like it usually does.  Of course, I had no meds, and my poor coworker tried to door dash me some relief, which of course didn't work at all because the door dasher didn't pick up the meds.  He finally drove into town and got the meds, and I got them on board in time to get a few hours of sleep before we had to head to the farm.  Of course, why not, my lovely friend the period fairy decided to grace me with a visit on top of all of this, which was totally not expected (thanks perimenopause).   Lucky for me, I always have solutions since it's never known when she might visit, but dang it body, can you not stack puking migraines and periods on top of each other?  

It was beautiful seeing all the snow and I do love this airbnb, but I am ready for this experiment to be over.  Too much time away from family and so much loss of sleep.  It literally takes me a week to get over the fatigue and sleep issues I incur while I am doing this experiment.  I am so very lucky in that my mom is in Kansas this week helping Tony with the house, dogs, and Andrew, or I would lose my mind coming home to chaos.   Enjoy some pictures from our trip!

Of course, what trip is complete without a trip through the greatest buffet ever, Toot Toot's?

My coworker chilling.  This is his first trip here with us and I think while we drive him nuts, he is doing pretty well keeping up with our crap.  

Got my new favorite the first night we were here.  

And my second favorite beer.

The snow is beautiful, but I wouldn't want to live here and deal with it all winter.  

It truly is the best place for lounging. Due to our sampling every 2 hours, we do a lot of this.  Don't get me wrong, the downtime from the hustle and bustle of normal life isn't a bad thing.  

I still don't understand the lure of ice fishing (See what I did there), but it is life here.  If I were a fish and it was this cold, I would go down very deep and not come up till springtime!

Didn't get the uber pretty colors like last time, but this is still gorgeous in my book.  

Never judge a book by its cover.  Jess found this amazing Chinese place in the middle of nothing that had really really good food for a great price.  

We had to celebrate Valentine's Day apart from our loved ones, but we made the best of it.  We had a good meal at the local bar and grill and had chocolate cake for dessert.  My coworker even bought Jess and I some chocolate because he knew we needed it.  

Tony had me roses back home which I got pictures of.  Glad my mom got to enjoy them since I was gone.  

We got done mid-day Saturday and voted to stay or me and one of my coworkers voted to stay and the other not so much.  I get it, he has small kids at home, and he misses them, but with the weather and the fact that all of us were very tired, I just didn't think it was a great idea to drive in the dark and late at night.  I found us a fun place that had food and wine flights, and we walked around their little downtown.  We found one place open that we could walk around, and it had a mix of old and new stuff.  We all found a little trinket or two to take home.  

We headed back bright and early Sunday morning, and I am glad we waited.  The roads were still not great until we got out of Wisconsin.  We made great time and despite a little bit of car sickness, got mostly unloaded and home.  I was able to enjoy my strawberry wine for dinner and spend some good family time before getting in bed and crashing.

Have a great week y'all!  I will be recovering and getting ready for some busy times.  I hope to get some runs done since I had a week off and the dogs are bouncing off of the walls.  

Let's Dance

What to write about this week?  Lots of dumpster fires for sure in this world.  Trying to stay in the eye of the storm and not be in the storm.  It's hard, especially when you care as much as I do about people and others.  

I don't know who this guy is, but this quote came up on my FB feed and it's so true, but also hard to turn off.  Again, I have worked really hard to walk with people through their pain and trials and tribulations, but I am so bad about meshing myself into them and making their problems mine.  

Okay let's talk about good things, because there are still good things happening in this world.  I did get three runs in this week but no working out. I feel like my ribs are healing a little bit each week and while it isn't on the timeline I would for it to be, they are getting a little less sore each week.  I can now cough or sneeze without doubling over in intense pain so there is that.  I really am not going to enjoy starting out back at zero.  

We also had the Superbowl to end the week.  While we wanted a three peat, we got a blow out and if we weren't at a fun party eating amazing food and drinking some amazing homemade drinks, it would have been a really bad night.  Friends make it all better for sure.  

I'll end on this and yes, it's out of order for the week.   Andrew had a combined 8/7th grade dance on Friday, and it was 80s themed.  First, he wanted to go as Professor Brown from Back to the Future which would have been easy with me having access to lab coats and such.  The day before he decided to totally change what he wanted to go as, which put me in a spin because well, I haven't really kept any of my 80s cloths and certainly didn't have anything for an 80s boy.  I pulled out all of my heavy metal shirts I was holding on to and we found one that fit and then I remembered I had a leather jacket that would also fit.  He had a pair of black jeans that he has almost outgrown = tight and I offered to put some holes in them to make them authentic (he decline).  We tried to fit his foot in my chucks but even minus the shoelaces, we just couldn't make that work.  Add in a Wii guitar from guitar hero and you have a rock legend.  Not sure if he is a metal head or a member of the artic monkeys, but off he went and of course he won at bingo (they got a bingo card if they dressed up).  He is such a lover of the 80s and it makes me smile.  

Have a great week y'all!  I'm heading back to Wisconsin for another trip and mom is coming in to help Tony hold down the fort.  

Cars and burgers

It was a mostly beautiful week of weather, but I was dealing with severe fatigue and just wasn't able to capitalize on it.  I am playing the game of is this perimenopause, still crap left over from the flu, or just lack of good sleep.  I did get out twice and ran on the weekend but am still really having issues with sore ribs so work out class just wasn't going to work.  I'm fairly frustrated because even my job requires lifting and using my ribs.  Hell, everyday life makes me have to use my ribs to some degree so how in the heck are they ever going to heal????

 

We did get to go to the tread talk at the Midwest Dream Car collection.  We had been wanting to take Andrew for some time, because of course they have a Delorean.  

Of course, it was his favorite, but he did also get to sit in the seat of the car KSU had built and talk to the engineers on the project.  He was very intrigued, and he has started to say regularly that he wants to go to college.  I am not going to pressure him in any way, but my little KSU alumni heart would love to see him be a wildcat.  

Hey, that's my dream car!  I grew up riding around in one of these that belonged to my neighbor and loved it so someday, I shall have one too!

We also got to eat at our favorite restaurant which had moved over on the other side of town.  Spark's burger is a fun place that uses all Kansas made or grown products on their menu.  They also are famous for their milkshakes, especially for their Tang milkshake for our basketball coach, Coach Tang made with real tang.

The use to be downtown and fairly close to our side of Manhattan and Andrew loved eating there. When they moved, it made a little bit less accessible, but we will try and get there as much as we can.   We love supporting local.  

I also enjoyed a happy hour flight at one of our favorite breweries Aggieville Brewing, I can't wait till their patio opens back up!  I still say my favorite beers are at MBC but the food at AB is so good!  

I've got a lot on my mind, a lot I would like to talk about here, but lately it's more about talking face to face versus writing it down for others to use against you.  I am an open book, but I need to be a little more closed in writing. I know, I know, it's all very cryptic, but pray that my newfound therapy toolbox of tools comes to the rescue, and I get some sleep.  Pray that some people who have been affected in this whole mess I am suddenly in know that they are loved, respected, and appreciated for their hard work.  

Have a great week y'all!