Lunar eclipse

The lunar eclipse began on the evening of my birthday. I had a perfect view of the lunar eclipse last night, our cloudless, starlit sky made for a great background to the shadowed moon. 

As the earth slips between the moon and the sun, changing the color of the moon from white to orange, it is showing the effect the Earth's atmosphere is having on the color of sunlight passing through it.

 

Courir: to run

I run as often as I can and enjoy it thoroughly. In turn, anything you do daily is going to have an effect on you in some way. Therefore I decided to figure what exactly all that running is doing to me.


Five of the many benefits of running:
1. Lowers blood pressure.. As you run your arteries are being expanded and contracted more than usual, maintaining the elasticity of your arteries.
2. Strengthens your lungs..Deep breaths force your lungs to use more tissue and it keeps them powerful and strong.
3. Strengthens your heart..Prevents heart attacks and keeps the cardiovascular system efficient and strong
4. Running high..The feeling of exhilaration and completion after a run. This euphoria comes from a betaendorphin release triggered by the neurons in the nervous system.
5. Weight loss..the average individual burns 100 calories per mile

Negative Effects
Besides common injuries that may occur the only negative effects I've run into are shin splints, that have since diminished due to new running shoes. Running will effect each person differently, and may bring out problems like osteoarthritis to those who are already predisposed to it.

Why I run:
It first started to lose weight and stay in shape. But like one article said..."There truly is a time when running transforms from a painful and dreaded torture into a wonderful and rewarding experience." Now running is more of an outlet. To get out and accomplish something each day and feel rejuvenated.

Combining...

This is actually blog #2, blog #1 seemed to have gotten tossed by the way side. So the next few posts are going to be transferring my old posts over here, because they are still worth reading :)

Tis the season...

I spent about an hour wrapping some of my presents and I haven't even finished shopping yet!

Unfortunately,  I have over done it in years prior with the Christmas music, resulting in limited excitement to listen to it again. But I did make an exception while wrapping presents, it just seemed like the right thing to do.

One of my favorite things about  Christmas is turning off all the lights in the house and sitting by the tree. I've captured a bit of that moment here...

Exams and Thriftiness

There are two exams required to pass before I can be licensed as a veterinary technician.The first which I completed today is the easier of the two and the second which will be Dec 6th is 200 questions of sheer logical guessing because even doctors have trouble with some of the questions. But Marcela and I drove on over to phoenix and got the first exam down, feeling good about it. I got to enjoy the Rainforest cafe which was awesome! Despite the life like looking monkeys doing, well whatever it is monkey's do, behind us :) Enjoyed my time with marcela and will be studying for test #2 in the mean time

Rainforest cafe

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They had large aquariums (which were very clean I noticed) and this is Dori of course

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 The majority of my organized, color coded closet contains clothes from thrift stores.

It's amazing what you can find for under $5 each.

I've purchased so many name brand clothes and saved hundreds of dollars at thrift stores.

Having said that, there are very few things I'll buy at full price anymore.On rare occasion there are exceptions, and I just could not pass up these boots at t he Arizona Mills Mall (Which were still under $40 dollars hehe )