Memory Lane Monday

OK since I was only 10 months old in this picture this really isn't my memory. I'm going to try and scan all my old baby photos onto a cd so that I have a copy. Especially some of them are like this one and showing wear and tear. It happens, I guess, when a photo is nearly 30 years old.
So here's to a walk down memory lane to all those who knew me as a baby :)

Stage 2: Done

I want to say complete but I didn't do my desired goal for today. We spent too much time out fishing and then came home ate dinner and played Singstar on the PlayStation. I had just a few minutes to go out and ride down to my friend neighbors house to check on her animals and come home. Had a scary moment though, my back brakes failed on my bike and so while I was going down my driveway(fairly steep hill) I couldn't stop. My back brakes weren't working at all and my front brakes were just barely slowing me down, so I went down hill with on foot dragging the ground and hoping I wouldn't lose control. I think the tires and brake pads were just too wet from all the rain we had today. I may just ride my other bike tomorrow just to be safe, it's kept inside out of the weather. It's just a bigger/heavier bike and takes a bit more energy to get it up the hills on my street.
Anyway here's the screenshot for today:

click on the pic to see it clearer, but it shows I only rode 0.47 miles today. So I'll try for the full mile in the morning.

Stage 1: Complete

I did it, I got up and rode my bike for the first stage of Le Tour de Challenge from Mapmyride.com . It was only .87 miles but hey when you haven't ridden farther then that in like 17 years or so that's a good distance. So tomorrow we'll see if I can get that up to a full mile. You probably cannot see it well in this screenshot but in "virtual time" it would of taken me 1:56:09 to ride the first stage on the real Le Tour de France. In real time it would of taken me a lot longer 'cause there's some monster hills there and my legs felt like rubber when I got done with my little ride this morning. So 1 down, 21 days to go. Did anyone else reading this take this challenge?

Doing the Le Tour Challenge

MapMyRide.com is having a cycling challenge beginning tomorrow July 4th and lasts for 21 days. Same length as the Tour de France. My personal goal is to attempt to ride everyday and extend the distance I ride. My chances of winning the challenge are at the lower side but I think I'll buy myself a nice new saddle for my beater bike (the one that sits outside in the weather all the time) if I ride all 21 days.
If you want to participate in the challenge just click on the link above and sign-up.

I hate being down

I really do, so I need to write something more positive to offset the last post. Being down goes against my the-glass-is-half-full views on most things (unless those things pertain to me personally I guess...ugh gotta quit thinking that way).
Anyway here's some positive things I've noticed the past couple days.
1. I've been seeing more and more people running errands and getting around on bicycles. I love
this and am more encouraged to get my fitness level up so that maybe one day I can commute to work. Anymore it's nothing to go to Wal-mart and see people parking or loading up their bikes. I drive to or home from work and I see people riding around on bikes. The really nice thing is that these are not people you would expect to see on a bike. I saw a guy on his bike pulling out of the Wal-mart gas station. Cigarette in hand a nice horn on his bike wearing tee-shirt, baseball cap and cutoff shorts. A couple of months a go I saw a lady riding her bike on the street looking like she just came out of the office all the way down to the ballerina flat type shoes on her feet. I've seen people riding on the highway near my house. I think this is wonderful and encouraging no matter their own personal reasons for riding. I also love it that more people are riding and gas prices have gone down(some).
2. I live in a beautiful area. I notice this on my hour drive to class. There are corn fields, bean fields and cotton fields galore. All green and healthy looking (as long as you ignore the fact that these fields are probably saturated with pesticide and fertilizers). I see several people selling produce from their gardens on the side of the roads. Towns that mow and take care of the areas near the highway. Lush green trees and flowing creeks/rivers. The people here are great and 90% are willing to help a perfect stranger. I think the other 10% are transplants from other parts of the country 'cause being nice to people seems to be a totally Southern trait. I'm probably on of the 10% but I come from the Ozarks and they will only (maybe) help ya if they know you and you pay them. Ozark natives are more content to stay in their own little part of the country and ignore the fact that there are other people out there. Anyway I digress and that last part defeats my purpose of looking at the positive so lets not dwell on it anymore.
3. I have great kids and hubby
4. I have a great extended family
5. I have great friends

Well that's about it for tonight. Work tomorrow and Saturday and then Sunday off, yeah. I have a ton of homework for this class. Nice thing is, is that it's like elementary level math and so I shouldn't have a problem with the first couple chapters. When we get into doing dosages and flow rates and nursey stuff it might be more difficult but the first part isn't too bad.

Tomorrows Horoscope and Contemplating

Scorpio You don't know whether to laugh or cry, for your world seems intensely crazy now, even if the excitement level is high. Fortunately, you are willing to ride the roller coaster of emotions you are experiencing, for there's no easy way to stop. Keep in mind that this journey is perfectly safe and that you need not distinguish your fantasies from what's actually happening. You will gain the clarity you need in a couple of days.

Man sometimes these horoscopes are so accurate they're scary. I don't know about the roller coaster idea, I feel more like I'm drowning or someone is holding a pillow over my head. I just want everything to line up just right. I'm tired of the roller coaster I want to get off.

College isn't suppose to be easy and this isn't really what's upsetting me about it all. It's my own failures. I made a C in Anatomy & Physiology I. A 'C' is not good enough, I needed a B or A. Now I'm in another course called Math for Nurses and we are told that anything less then an 80 is failing. I'm questioning myself, I keep crying over this crap and I just don't know anymore if it's all worth it.

Thing is every time I think about changing degree plans, career plans and giving up on nursing I get this lump/tightening in my stomach and the waterworks starts and I can't control it. Just the thought of giving up on a dream I've held on so tightly just tears me up inside. This dream and my husband are the only constants in my life. Everything and everyone else changes but these two have stayed the same.

Hubby is very, oh so very supportive. He tells me it's nothing to cry over and just keep trying. I'm just tired of it all and I fear that I'm never going to be good enough to get into a nursing program.

Well, I took the final for A & P 1 yesterday. I hope I did well. I was pretty confident until I got to the last page and I think I screwed that up. I'll find out today what my final grade is for the class. All in all I'm a little disappointed with the entire thing. We didn't do any lab work what so ever. We only went to the room were lab was suppose to be like 3 times. The rest of the times the teacher just lectured for the four hours. The tests for the class were handwritten 10 minutes before class started. Needless to say they were not well thought out and sucked really bad. I'm glad to be done with it and I'm hoping not to have this particular teacher for A & P 2.

In other news, I'm a finalist in a contest. A while back I entered a contest for a 100.00 Home Depot gift certificate to go towards completing or starting a garden/yard project. I found out this week I was chosen, by random, as a finalist. So if anyone reading this would please, pretty please click on this link and vote for me I would greatly appreciate it. I'm in second place at the moment down by 2 votes and have till the 13th of July. Here's the link http://www.thisgardenisillegal.com/2009/06/home-depot-entry-1-a-bog-garden-of-my-own.html