A student (a boy) just said to me, "Miss Christensen, are you feeling under the weather today?"
I said, "No, why?"
he said, "oh you just look like you had a hard time getting up this morning."

What? Nice!
So I admit that I did hit snooze a couple of times and that I didn't take a shower. My hair is pulled back and I am not wearing much make up. But still!

New and Improved!

This is a picture of the inside of my heart and the devise that closed the hole. It is about 24 mm.
My new and improved heart!
I had my one month heart check up this week. My echo-tech opened my chart and the first thing he said was, "whoa you had a big hole in your heart! Do you know how big that was?"
He did my echo and everything is looking good and I have been taken off all restrictions! I can start exercising again!!! Yipee! (if you check my sbr-sari.blogspot.com blog you know how excited I am to be back!)
Because of the size of the devise that was used to fix my hole I am having some palpitations as my activity has increased. This is pretty normal. They have me taking 800 mg of Ibuprofen 2-3x/day to keep the inflammation down. If this doesn't work than we will have to try something else. It is a little frustrating not be feeling 100%. When the nurse was talking to me she kept emphasizing how BIG the devise is they had to use and that I am just going to have to ease back into things. Ok, ok!

My last weekend before I had to go back to school my dad and I spent a few days at the cabin We took a "walk" (I am still on restrictions with my heart so that's what we call it) up the first bit of the Timp trial from Aspen Grove. It was so pretty with all the wild flowers and smelled so good from the fresh rain.

Most of the weekend was spent working. I am painting one of my dad's litho print editions and he had a couple paintings he is working on. So we set up in the studio and listened to a book on tape while we painted. It was a great weekend to be up there with all the storms that rolled through.

Demolition Derby Baby!

It was one of the best nights of my life! (ok, not best, but right up there!) I CANNOT believe I have not been to a DEMOLITION DERBY before now!

My experience started earlier in the day when I decided that I needed an outfit to wear to the derby. Where do you go for that kind of apparel? The WALMART duh! (for those of you that remember my last trip to the Walmart know that it takes a lot to get me there ...in fact this is my first trip back.) But I had to do it! I walked in, took one look around and thought JACK POT! I even called Kimi D to tell her!

The derby (that is just what you call it) was AWESOME! Pretty much they just drive around hitting each and the last car still running .. wins! It really was so great! The people watching is great! The food is great! Had myself a little Navajo Taco (if I would have seen the deep fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches first I totally would have had one of those)

Pete let me barrow his Dairy Farmer's of America Hat .. it really topped off my outfit! And it didn't even mess up my ratted up hair. Dave was so lucky to have such a hot date!

We totally got to meet the driver of the X96 truck! eeek! so exciting! He won his round of the derby. This is his first derby to! Obviously a VERY talented driver! I will be looking for him at future derby's. We found out he is married. Lame!
I am totally a fan of the demo derby!

GEAR

Any time you take on a new hobby there will be a certain amount of "gear" that will be required depending on the said hobby.

At first you think, oh I don't need this or that, or I can just get by with the cheaper/fake version. Most of the time you may not have realized how much gear actually is needed for your new hobby until you have already gotten sucked in!
This summer as I went from swimming (which I already had the gear) to running to biking I found myself becoming a
GEAR JUNKIE!
Before I knew it I was wanting/needing gear! It just never ends! Suddenly I found myself with a subscription to a running magazine! (shocking .. even to me!) If swimming wasn't bad enough I decided to train for a triathlon (before my heart procedure put that on pause) ... taking on three sports means a lot of gear.

My latest piece of "gear" that I am SO excited about ... my new GARMIN 305 GPS watch! It came in the mail just days before my heart surgery and I haven't even gotten to use it. I just look at it and hold it and am counting down the days until we can go for a little run together.

Just when I am ready to start training again the seasons are going to change and that just means ... different gear!