AuntJenFox

Happy Monday Friends! The theme song for today really was, “Just Another Manic Monday,” thought I would share with you a glimpse of the life of a nursing home administrator who happens to be training for a marathon and living with her sister:

4:30 am – Up and out of bed, take the dogs out, feed my dog and then its out the door for an easy 4 mile recovery run.

5:30 am – Make my smoothie and coffee and then hit the shower, (my recovery run pace is very, very slow and I took a wrong turn on my way back to the house)

7:00 am – Get a hug and a kiss from my niece as she’s headed out the door for school with her mother.

7:10 a.m. – Ready to leave for work, decide to let dogs out one last time before heading to our corporate office in Irving for the final budget review meeting and a conference call with my boss, the CEO, COO and some other important people.

7:11 am – Realize that the patio door locked behind me and I’m stuck outside with no way back in the house, two dogs, and no cell phone. After some McGyveresq attempts to break into the house, walk across the street and borrow the soccer mom’s cell phone.

8:05 a.m. – Sister finally arrives from work and let’s me and the dogs back in the house.  Missed my conference call and will now be an hour late for budget meeting.

8:25 a.m. – Get a text that “State” is in the building (bet you didn’t know that nursing homes are the 2nd most regulated industry in the U.S. did you?), get off the phone with my boss, change directions and high-tail it to my building – no budget meeting. for me!  Make several phone calls and check messages while en route (I know I shouldn’t check email while driving.)

9:15 a.m. – Arrive at work, find out what the surveyor needs and check in with staff. Make rounds, answer emails, return phone calls, deal with resident concerns that came up over the weekend.

12:45 – Eat lunch while checking in with my boss who is at the budget meeting and get prepped for meeting at 3:00 p.m. with a major hospital system and a bunch of really important people. Weigh-in for team weight loss challenge at work – work scale is only 1lbs off from my scale at home!

1:30 p.m. Staff meeting to discuss residents with past due balances and other financial concerns.

2:30 p.m. Rounds with surveyor to interview residents and look at areas treated for fire ant infestation. 

3:00 p.m. Decide I’m not going to make the important meeting with the hospital, text boss before iphone dies.

4:00 p.m. Surveyor leaves, all four complaints are cleared!

4:15 p.m. Back on the phone with my boss to talk about tomorrow’s meetings, resident complaints, and develop a game plan for the yet to be finished 2014 budget.

5:00 p.m. Butts and Guts Class in the Wellness Center – exactly what it sounds like.

5:30 p.m. Back to office to review a new concern, sign invoices and answer emails.

6:15 pm Leave for home.

6:50 pm Make it home in record time, great night to drive home with the top down!

7:00 p.m. Walk to the park with the dogs, my sister and my niece.

7:45 p.m. Finally eat dinner, while answering emails and texts messages from work and checking Facebook. Thanks to my sister for feeding me tonight.

Dinner, well at least a major component.

8:30 pm Log final meal in myfitnesspal only to realize I’m 68 calories over for the day and really need to eat more protein.

9:30 p.m. Sit down to write this post while my dog sulks that I’m not playing with him.

10:00 p.m. Time for bed so I can get up and do it all over again!

Welcome back friends!  Sorry it has taken so long for me to write a post.  There’s been a lot going on over the past 2 weeks and well, I seem to have a bad case of writer’s block.  So please forgive me if this post is a bit rambling and not really focused.  I’ve decided the best way to get past my writer’s block is to well, just start writing…

So many carbs…and yes I ate 2 pieces of the chocolate, coolwhip thing!

2 weeks ago my Grandmother passed away.  Everyone asks was this expected and the answer is yes and no.  Grandma was living in a nursing home, but that’s for another post, and was doing reasonable well for her age and health conditions.  Fortunately for her and my mother she just went to sleep and didn’t wake up.  My Grandfather had passed back in March so I think she is probably where she really wants to be now.   Anyway, traveling to Oklahoma to help my Mom with the arrangements and then to attend the funeral meant a major disruption to my carefully crafted routine.   I love going to visit my Mom as I consider Fairview, the town where she lives, to be my adopted hometown.  And it was really an honor to be able to help plan the celebration of my Grandmother’s life.  I don’t mean to trivialize her passing at all.  Anyway, this is a community that believes in showing how much they care about you in times of trouble by feeding you.  We had an endless supply of food delivered to the house –  casseroles, 3 kinds of homemade cinnamon rolls, made from scratch dinner rolls, cookies, cakes, lasagna etc.  Never mind the family dinner that was served at the church following the service…  I ate like I had never seen a roll or a cinnamon roll before, I mean seriously how can you not try out all 3?  I did manage a few short runs that weekend but nothing close to the 14 mile long run that was on my schedule for that Saturday. 

I returned to Dallas late Sunday evening with a tickle in the back of my throat that meant one thing, I was getting sick – 5 year olds are cute but they are germ magnets…  I woke up Monday morning not feeling so great and decided on a few more minutes of sleep over my regular run, I made a feeble attempt at speedwork on Tuesday, decided to sleep in on Wednesday, and then did half the recommended distance on Thursday.  I am not an anal retentive person in general, but when it comes to a training plan I tend to want to follow it to the letter.  So it really was hard not to have done those runs.  What was worse was the 16 mile long run looming on Saturday of last week.  I’d missed both 14 mile group runs so how was I going to manage 16 miles not feeling well and having a serious drop in mileage that week?  Fortunately, I have learned with running and training for marathons that you have to listen to your body.  Sometimes its okay to adjust your training and scale back a little.  Lucky for me, through Runner’s Edge in KC, Daily Mile, and the Dallas Running Club; I have some extremely supportive running friends that kept telling me I could do this.  Come Saturday morning my decision to scale back earlier in the week and rest paid off.  It was an absolutely gorgeous morning, perfect for a long run, and I felt like a new person.  This turned out to be one of the best long runs I’ve had in a while. It really was a Sweet 16!

I’m not naming names, but one of these cute things passed her germs on to Aunt Jen – her mother knows who she is…

Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies – we either expect too much of ourselves (perfectionist thinking) or not enough.  We tell ourselves we can’t do that or that we aren’t smart enough, pretty enough, fast enough, skinny enough what Weight Watchers calls negative self-talk.  I was lucky enough to have people around me that just kept telling me I could do this and hearing it enough times I believed that I could and I did!  I am happy to say that I’ve had a much better week of running and eating despite possibly consuming one too many margaritas on Tuesday night, but I still managed my 5 miles the next morning and on a treadmill no less!

One of my favorite quotes.

So over the past couple of weeks I’ve been reminded of some important things about life:

1. Family is the most important thing you have, make sure you tell your family how much you love them and what they really mean to you every chance you get.
2. Sometimes it pays to rest and give yourself a break.
3. A good support system is hard to beat!
4. Running 16 miles in 60 Degree Weather is much easier than trying to run it in -1 degree weather and on ice and snow, (the last time I ran a 16 mile training run was in Kansas City, in February…)
5. Rules are meant to be broken.
6. Margaritas can make for good pre-run fuel.
7. I have some pretty amazing running friends and a truly awesome family.
8. It’s okay to get off track, just have a plan to get right back on track again.
   

   My amazing family

Oh and in other news I decided for many reasons to delay my state boards until Friday, October 11 so I’ve updated my countdown.  Thanks for putting up with this rambling post and the short hiatus.  I plan to get back on a regular schedule and to put a little more focus into my posts and hopefully find my voice.

Happy Monday Everyone! I’d been planning to write a post about my experience running the Back to the NFL 5K at the AT&T “Cowboys” Stadium with my family this past weekend, and I will, but today I’m in a funky mood so you’re stuck with hearing about my new life in Dallas.

Running the Fun Run with my niece

I’ve been averaging about 100hrs a pay period at work recently and I worked all day yesterday so I took this afternoon off. I was really looking forward to it until I had to leave. We had a meeting this morning to look at a new software application and then I was done. No where I had to be and nothing specific that needed to get done and as soon as I walked out of the door from the meeting and said goodbye to my boss I felt lost…what do I do now? I could go home, but home is not really my home yet. I could run errands, but that’s not really any fun and Dallas just doesn’t feel like my city yet, not the way Kansas City felt like my city. And then my work cell rang and I felt saved. It was a quick conversation that resulted in about 5 texts and 2 emails, but sadly that quick connection to work made me feel better, not so lost.  By the way my former shrink did give me the proper diagnosis of being a workaholic a condition I chose to embrace.

Most of you know that 3 months ago I packed up my life into a “Pack-Rat,” storage container and moved to Dallas for a new job, a job I LOVE, to be closer to my family. My sister and brother in-law, who are AWESOME, opened the door to their home to me and Eddie, my 5-year-old Welsh Corgi. For those of you that don’t know me well I’ve not lived with anybody in over 15 years.  So this experience has been both wonderful and challenging at the same time – wonderful because I get to see my nieces and nephew more, challenging because as welcoming as they have been it is still their house – not mine and 95% of my stuff is still in a storage unit somewhere in Dallas. 

I love these girls! Being and Aunt is the best!

I feel like right now my townhouse in Kansas City is hanging around my neck like an albatross.  I had thought renting it out would be relatively easy, but so far no takers and the management company called today to talk about lowering the price.  Now I wonder if I shouldn’t go ahead and list it and try to sell even at a loss?  My sister jokingly mentioned just letting the bank foreclose the other night and that doesn’t seem like such a bad idea right now, not that I would ever do that.  5 years ago buying my townhouse seemed like such a great idea, but now… ugh!

The last 3 months have been surreal for me, I’ve been living in this transitory state, so I’ve thrown myself into the tangible things that I know how to deal with like work and marathon training. And trying to focus on the positives of living with my sister like snuggling with my niece and reading bedtime stories, seeing first hand what an amazing teacher, mother and wife my sister is and how patient my brother in-law is to put up with our crazy family and all the quality time I get to spend in my awesome car – a Volkswagen Eos – if you must deal with Dallas traffic you might as well do it in a super fun to drive, hard top convertible…

Didn’t want my nephew to be left out, and yes I paid him $20 bucks to let his mom put pink in his hair. I’m a really good Aunt.

I am learning a lot about myself and finding some validation in the choices I have made.  I Love my nieces and nephews dearly and would do anything for them, but I am certain that being a mother is not in the cards for me.  But I am also learning that it is possible to share your life with people and still hang on to who you are, yes you do have to make compromises but living with someone is not the all or nothing proposition I thought it was. 

Eddie Loves His Cousin…

So if anyone wants to buy or rent a two bedroom townhouse in Spring Hill, KS call me!  In the meantime, I’ll be enjoying princes tea parties, reading bedtime stories and getting lots of hugs and kisses which is pretty awesome. 

And yes, I really should have been studying for my boards instead of writing this post. But now I think its time to go home…

So it’s Tuesday and I’ve added a new countdown to my blog – 27 Days until I take my state boards…Yes, this morning I took the plunge and scheduled my exam for my Texas Nursing Home Administrator Boards.  It’s not enough that I have the job, and I’m putting in the hours, the State of Texas says I still have to pass a test to keep the job.  Licensed Nursing Home Administrators have the joy of being licensed not only by the state they work in, but also by a Federal Board.  I still remember how nervous I was when I took my Federal Boards – the 30 seconds it takes the computer to calculate your score to let you know if you passed were probably the longest 30 seconds of my life. 

I am licensed in Kansas and I am currently working on a provisional license in Texas, but it expires in December.  I have to know any number of things like licensure fees, time between meals if a substantial snack is offered – 16hrs – and square footage of a rooms. Administrators have to be generalists and know a little bit about everything: Nursing, Finance, Marketing, Therapy, Dining Services, housekeeping, Leadership and on and on it goes.  I tend to procrastinate on big things, but with my marathon in December and knowing that some big changes are on the horizon at work, I decided I might as well just get it done and behind me. Between now and December there will be no right time to take this test. So I have 27 days to study the 228 Pages of the, “Texas Administrative Code: Title 40 Social services and Assistance; Part 1 Department of Aging and Disability Service, Chapter 19 Nursing Facility Requirements for Licensure and Medicaid Certification.” Exciting stuff. 

Time to study, can you say flashcards?

And of course I’m still living with my sister, dealing with the joys of Dallas traffic, working a more than fulltime job, and oh yes training for a marathon. And I am committing to staying on track with my health and weight loss goals, this isn’t a good enough reason to not be in control of how I feel and what I put in my body.   But hey, as I said in my last post, I’ve run 26.2 miles – for fun!  I can conquer this obstacle too!   And just in case someone out htere needs a little mid-week motivation this is one of my current favorite take on the world songs Mandisa’s Overcomer Happy Tuesday Everyone!

The second most important document in my life right now, my marathon training plan.