sticking to our word.

As many of you know, my Grandmom passed away back in October.  Before she passed away, my sisters and I decided that we wanted to organize a 5k/10k in remembrance of her…as well as to benefit Bladder Cancer.  We thought that having a race for her would be a perfect idea…she was very active throughout her life…always involved with sports, etc (she was even a water aerobics instructor for the old ladies in her village!).  We told her about our plans and she was very excited about it.  We planned on having the race start in Margate, NJ (a shore town where she lived for most of her life, where my mom grew up, and where we currently have a house in).   She was very involved in the town ….she served as a Sergeant in the Detective Division of the Atlantic Country Prosecutors Office and was a member of the PBA.

I know that if we planned this race, it would be very successful.  And as excited as we were to do it…we just never got around to planning it.  Now I know that it is only February…but its time to get a move on (races take a LONG time to plan!).  Of course we are busy.  My oldest sister (Danielle) is in her third year of Med School, my middle sister , Mary, is in graduate school for teaching/reading specialist…and I am in my second semester of my junior year of college.  but the thing is…no matter what- we will always be busy/have stress…it’s a part of life. so instead of waiting for the right time to do something…waiting for things to settle down…I have decided to get it done…to learn how to deal with things in midst of a busy life/stress.  Afterall– planning this race is something that is super important to me.  I will not be satisfied unless it is done….I will not be happy unless we pull it off.

anyway…enough babling… I contacted the City Clerk office of Margate and they told me to email the Chief of Police. …..which is perfect becuase (a) I work for him in the summer and (b) my grandmom knew him very well.  The lady at the city clerk told me to include exact information about the race (the date, distance, roads that need to be closed, events before/after, amount of people expected, what the race is for, etc.).

distance: 5k/10k

benefit: in rembrance of our grandmom, Yvonne Stewart and to benefit bladder cancer research

expected number of runners: 500??

more info: I would like to have some sort of ceremony with the police (since she was an officer) before the race, music (live?) after the race with post-race food, t-shirts, and awards.

This is going to be a lot of hard work…we will need to get a company for timing, sponsors, t-shirts, awards, food, advertising…etc….but I am very very excited to get to work 😉

Question: Have any of you ever organized a race?  If so, do you have any suggestions?  Anything will help! thanks 😉

love and miss you, Grandmom ❤ 9.15.09.

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busy as a bee…

First, let me start out by saying THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all of your kind words regarding my Grandmom’s passing.  It has definitely been a tough few days but I know things will get better with time.  She is much better off up in heaven looking down upon us all rather than suffering in the hospital.  She had an absolutely amazing life.   She made a huge impact upon my life- and will continue to do so for as long as I live.   There has been lots of tears throughout these few days and I am sure there will many more tears to come but I am really trying to look at the good times and to celebrate the wonderful memories that my family and I had with her.

Tomorrow is the viewing/funeral/luncheon.  So today, as you could probably imagine, was a very hectic day.  I woke up early and got right to work on the pamphlet for the funeral tomorrow.  When I was finally finished with it, I took it over to our local copying center to get it edited and to have copies made…. here is the finished product!

My grandmom (the baby) and her mother in France by the arc de triomphe

the quote on the last page says:

I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one.
I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done.
I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways,
of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days.
I’d like the tears of those who grieve to dry before the sun.
Of happy memories that I leave when life is done.

I also helped my dad with printing up these foam poster boards with pictures of her life.  there are 7 boards in all but this is just a little sample for ya:

Boston Recap:

Well we were on the fence as to whether to still go to boston (for my oldest sister’s crew regatta- she is the coach) or not, but my sister and I finally decided to go.  Friday morning I made a classic bowl of hot oats:

1/2 C oats, 1/2 C H20, 1/2 C skim milk, raisins, chopped apple, cinnamon, honey

and then we took the train from Philly to boston on Friday afternoon and got to boston late Friday night.  Saturday morning, although the weather predicted rain, we woke up to a sunny, clear sky…not a drop of rain in the sky.  I was still semi-sick and my sister was getting sick but we decided to suck it up and run our longest run yet- 19 miles! Now- let me remind you- the only workout I did ALL WEEK before this run was 2 yoga sessions (not hard ones either) and a 2 mile run.  Needless to say, I was nervous!  Yeah I was coughing a bit here and there but I made it!  It wasnt the fastest splits ever and I sorta died in the last mile…but I RAN 19 MILES…BOO YAA!!!  and you wanna know something even better?  Luna Bar, Cascadian Farms, and Nantucket Nectars were all at the Head of the Charles…. andddd they were giving out free samples!  So half way through the run we took a pit stop and downed a sample of nantucket nectars, took a plastic bag and filled it with FREE mini lara bars and cascadian farms samples (and yes we ran 6 miles home carrying it all!).

After the run, we showered and went out to breakfast (aka a late lunch- it was 3 pm by the time we were eating!) to a place in Kendall Square called The Friendly Toast.

VERY cool inside.  strange, yet awesome.  and lets just say… we did not hold back AT ALL.  I ordered an egg white omelet with Broccoli, spinach, tomato, and scallions with 2 HUGE and THICK sliced of their homemade cinnamon raisin toast with home fries, hot chocolate, and tea.  We also shared a fruit salad.

yes…its true.  We ate every last drop of food on our plates.  Thank goodness I was wearing some spandex yogaish pants so I had room to expand hahah.  it was glorious.  We shopped around after that and went back to the hotel and took a nap!

We decided to head to Harvard Square at night an ended up meeting up my two best friends (who go to school in boston)- Katie and Lindsey. Lindsey gave me yellow roses and a nice sympathy card (even with a seashore theme (my family is from the shore))- really made me happy 😉

We walked around and finally found a place to get something to eat!  Cambridge 1 …. and you know what? it ended up being AWESOME.  They have GREAT flat breads.  I just stuck with a traditional flatbread…

And for dessert we walked over to the famous J.P. Licks (they have homemade ice cream and non-fat frozen yogurt)….

homemade hand dipped (hard) cofffee-oreo frozen yogurt (its on the bottom and you cant see it...sorry!) with homemade peanut butter soft serve frozen yogurt on top!

mary (my sister) enjoying her frozen yogurt!

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  My sister and I could not stop talking about how awesome this.  Praise the lord she qualified for the boston marathon- – we are definitely going to make several trips to J.P. Licks that weekend!!

Sunday was race day for the crew team.  Unfortunately the weather was HORRIBLE.  Windy. raining. freezing.  and they did not do so well.  oh well. it happens.  they never are amazing in the fall anyways.  In the spring, however, they always do well.  We got on the bus around 3 pm and headed back home.  We got back around 10:30 and I stayed awake until about 2:30 AM helping my dad with funeral arrangements…. and then in the morning/the whole entire day- I finished up with the funeral arrangements and got an outfit from anne taylor loft for the funeral.

oh and I also did some level 2 SHRED today… Jillian kicked my bootay. But it was great.  perfect thing to do for a crazy day like this- when you have almost no time at all!

okay well its getting late and tomorrow is another long day ahead.  We are leaving home around 8:30, then we have the viewing/funeral, the trip to the cemetery, and then a very nice luncheon afterwards.  As of now, I am planning to get back to school late tuesday night- but I may just end up going back early wednesday morning- we shall see!

Good night and thanks again for all of your kind words.  It really means ALOT to me…

I am beat….and so is my doggie Andie

Time for bed!

Love always,

Christina

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“through the streets of philadelphia”

Good evening!

TRUE STORY.  Last night I was sleeping on my sister’s couch in her apartment in philly and all the sudden I hear what sounds like someone sawing.  Do not ask me why I would think that someone would be doing construction at that hour of the night.  I was tired, okay?   I quickly realized that this was not a saw at all…this was bed springs moving up and down…faster and faster. My thoughts were confirmed when I then heard a woman begin to moan and scream and say the word “yes” several times over.  yes. that is right my friends…I heard people having sex through a wall.  Hope you were not in the middle of eating something when you were reading that paragraph! haha I couldnt sleep very well so I got off the couch and slept with my oldest sister Danielle in her bed.

okay….where was I?  OH!  This morning I was able to sleep in until about 8:30 (is it sad that this is considered “sleeping in” to me now?) I honestly do not even remember the last time that I slept past this time!  My sister and I got our running gear on and headed outside for our 10 miler.  The weather was PERFECT for running; it was the perfect fall day.  I wore shorts and a very thin long sleeved patagonia shirt.  Fantastic.  I have been having so much trouble with my garmin lately!  anyone else experiencing problems with their garmin? It takes a mile for it to register that I am running and so the pace for my first mile is always WAY off.  We estimated that our pace for mile 1 was about the same as mile 2….that being said…Here are the stats:

Avg pace: 7:58

Mile 1: 7:44

Mile 2: 7:44

Mile 3: 8:03

Mile 4: 8:01

Mile 5: 8:13

Mile 6: 8:18

Mile 7: 8:07

Mile 8: 8:03

Mile 9: 8:02

Mile 10: 7:36

The run was a lot of fun.  We ran along the Schuylkill River (which is part of the race course for the Philadelphia Marathon and where I used to row back in high school).  Love running along that river!  We ran back home and grabbed some money and headed to the farmers market to get some fruit and ingredients to make a green monster.  I love this about philly; everything is so accessible here!

1/2 C skim milk, 1/2 unsweetened vanilla almond milk,spinach, frozen banana, Peanut butter

yum.  smoothies are my new favorite post-run treat.  love them.  I also finished off pretty much a whole bag of green grapes haha…I am slightly addicted to grapes.  After the green monster I got ready to go and headed to a couple of stores that are located a block from my sister’s apartment…how convenient 😉 Along the way…we stopped for some philly soft pretzels!  Here is a picture of my sister being a goofball inside the store:

Then we headed home to visit my Grandmom in the hospital.  For those of you who do not know…she has been battling bladder cancer since I was a Junior in high school.  As of recently, she has not been doing very well.  The cancer is really beginning to take a toll on her body.  Her Calcium levels are very high (which is a symptom of the cancer) and she is very very very confused.  One night my mom was trying to get my grandmom to eat her dinner and my grandmom refused to eat the hospital food because  Ina Garten, Giada, bobby flay, rachael ray, etc were all cooking up tons of meals and were bringing it for her to eat. apparently, she was watching Food Network channel all day and thought she was going to be able to taste the food they were making on the shows.  now wouldnt that be awesome? haha I know you do not know my grandmom at all but before she got sick she was the “hippest” person I knew.  So active.  So mentally with it.  Fun.  In shape. you name it.  Here is a picture of her and I from Mary’s Graduation dinner this spring:

anyway… it was very good to see her today.  I am sure it can get lonely in the hospital sometimes.  She seemed really happy that we came to visit.  However, she was very confused.  I think that the confusion is due to being in the hospital for so long, taking so many meds, as well as the effects of the cancer.   It seemed as though the longer we stayed there, the more sense she was making, but it was still sad to see her in that state.  She said she wanted to go home; she is sick of all of it.  made me sad.  that’s life i guess…unforunately there is nothing any of us can do about it  😦

I went to my home (my parents home) after leaving the hospital and saw my momma and doggie Andie!  My dad was playing golf.  When he returned home, we went out to a nice family dinner at Maggianos

I ordered whole wheat penne with broccoli and spinach

The dish was good but I wish they would have added more broccoli and spinach!!  The restaurant itself was just so-so in my opinion… the service was not the best.  we still had a very fun time together!!

Well I am gonna get going now- I am beat!  I just realized that I left my bag with my physics homework, makeup, and some other things in my parents suv.  but I believe my mom is coming to philly in the morning to either go out to breakfast with Mary and I (danielle is a third year medical student and is on call tomorrow morning) or we will make breakfast here.  So she can bring my bag then!  I hate when I forget my stuff 😦

Good night!!!!!

Christina

p.s. here is the song that is associated with my “post title”- Streets of Philadelphia by Bruce Springsteen

p.p.s. yesterday my oldest sister, Danielle, was talking about how her high school crew team (that she is the coach of) is going to boston for the Head of the Charles Regatta.  It just so happens to be the SAME weekend as my fall break.  AND my long run that saturday is 18 miles. So I believe Mary and I (and perhaps my mom and dad) are going to make a trip up to boston that weekend for the head of the charles regatta and to run along the charles river!!! WOOHOOO! boston is beautifulllll. hope the plans follow through 😉

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Gramms

Hello!!  I am happy I listened to my body this morning and did not run right away.  instead I ran just before going to Hot Yoga….and the run went greatttttt:

distance: 3 miles

Pace: 7:28

time: 22:28:53

This is the fastest pace I have ever run! (well besides in races of course)  After the run my sister and I went to Hot Yoga: my legs were burning in warrior 1,2, and 3 today but overall i loved it.  just what i needed after my run- stretching/strengthening/opening up my hips…perfectooo 🙂

OH and i forgot– yesterday I tried out a Coconut creme pie larabar!

ingredients: dates, unsweetened coconut, almonds, cashews, extra virgin coconut oil

WOW this is GOOODDD…. and the thing is, I am not A HUGE fan of coconut- so I was really really surprised that i LOVED this bar.  still looking for a larabar that I do not like haha….

This is the state that I am in right now…. pimples everywhereeee!!! I used to have some problems in high school and such but now I am 20- no longer a teen but all of the sudden i feel like my skin just COMPLETELY changed!  so frustrating.  I went to the dermatologist last week and he gave me Rosaderm (a cleanser), retina creme, and a pill- its actually an antibiotic.  he said- “your face is going to get worse BEFORE it gets better”.  sweet dude thanks…its DEFINITELY worse.  I am so so frustrated because it makes me self conscious.  Now I know what they all say…”you are beautiful no matter what “and I truly am confident with who i am- i love me!  haha but having pimples all over your face can really lower your self confidence.  I just hope my skin gets better soon!

I made the Almond-Fig Blondies for Matt and sent them out! so keep a look out!  I hope they get there safely and are not crushed into pieces haha…the lady at the post office said it will only take a couple days.  I sent my race registration in.  I made my spinning playlist.  did my run.  went to yoga.  DID NOT get to wash my car (BOO), and got ready for cooking for my grandmom!!!  to do list completedddddd 🙂

Tomorrow’s Playlist: (entitled: Green Light)

1. Fire burning (4:03)- Sean Kingston
2. Higher Ground (3:12)- Stevie Wonder
3. Show me what I’m looking for (4:00)- Carolina Liar
4. Take me on the floor (3:31)- the veronicas
5. I don’t care (3:34)- Fall out boy
6. don’t stop (3:41)- ATB
7. Knock you down (5:26)- keri hilson, kanya west, and ne-yo
8. knock on wood (3:43)- Amii Stewart
9. I feel love (rollo and sister bliss monster mix radio edit) (3:55)- donna summer
10. takin’ care of business (4:49)- bachman-turner overdrive
11. over more time (5:21)- daft punk
12. Green light (feat andrew 3000) (4:44)- john legend
13. Everything (3:36)- michael buble

Total time: 53 minutes

I cannot take FULL credit for this playlist- I took some songs from Fitnessista– she has some great songs on her spinning playlists!  🙂

Dinner tonight with my grandmom went GREAT.  We started out with a salad: spinach leaves, feta cheese, chopped golden delicious apple, strawberries, candied walnuts and EVOO/balsamic dressing.  Then we made pineapple pork tenderloin YUM. with lima beans.  for dessert we made whipped cream and had strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries with it. so good.  we looked at photos after from italy/france and from when we were little.  it was nice to see her 🙂 (ill post some pics that my sister took of the dinner later!)  have a nice night!

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Rained OUT :(

Good morning!  This morning work got RAINED OUT!  I was sort of upset because I just started working for the season- and need $!  But I guess you cant walk around outside giving tickets out in the pouring rain.  I was pretty tired so when I got the call I just went right back to bed until 9 AM. Woke up and made a breakfast- it wasnt oatmeal OR a green monster! weird, right?

Breakfast included:

• Chobani Plain FF yogurt
• drizzle of honey
• cinnamon
• sliced banana
• fresh cherries, strawberries, and blueberries (alot of these!)
• a CranBran vitatop with naturally more!
• cup of green tea

This was a very nice, filling (surprisingly), and refreshing breakfast!  I continued sipping tea as I watched Regis and Kelly (and now Rachael Ray) and surfed the internet.  Today is a rest day for me- im so temped to make it an active recovery but I am not going to do it!  I am going to STRETCH ALL DAY.

My sister facebook messaged me from paris!  She is having a blast!  She said today she is going to Longchamp– i have one of their bags and LOVE IT.  they are so simple yet very nice- but expensive! Im jealous she is going!  I hope she is having fun- i do miss her, though!

Not sure what I will be up to for the day but Tonight I am going over my cousin’s to make dinner with him and his wife. Before I go over I am going to stop at my grandmom’s house.  She just got chemo yesterday and 24 hrs after chemo she never feels all too great.  I just want to check up on her.  Ill call her before I head over and see if she wants some lunch or dinner or for me to pick up groceries.  I hope she wants something- I want to be able to help her in some way!

 

Okay— my cousin is making me pick what we are making tonight!  Any ideas?  I came up with a few– anyone want to help me pick? or provide a new idea?

(1) Panko Oven- Crisped Chicken by william sonoma
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/recipedetail.cfm?objectid=F333FC5D%2D4DA5%2D4FF5%2D9455728EBAF39DD9

with Garlic “fries” by ellie krieger
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/garlic-fries-recipe/index.html

(2)Balsamic Chicken with baby spinach – ellie krieger

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/balsamic-chicken-with-baby-spinach-recipe/index.html

(3) Bobby Flay’s Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Lime & Cilantro (had these before they are divine haha)
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/grilled-sweet-potatoes-with-lime-and-cilantro-recipe/index.html

with Garden Chicken:

(4) Pineapple Pork Tenderloin

(5) buffalo chicken salad with homemade healthy blue cheese dressing by ellie krieger

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/healthy-appetite-with-ellie-krieger-/buffalo-chicken-salad-recipe/index.html

(6) chicken cacciatore

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/chicken-cacciatore-recipe/index.html

(7) Veggie Lasagna from canyon ranch

(8) cx stuffed with feta from canyon ranch

HELP!

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