May 25-May 30

May 25


The landscapers killed this rattlesnake in our yard.


I put on my pedometer to go for a walk, but got preoccupied with doing yard stuff, so I just left it on for the evening. I guess this doesn't really count, but I was impressed with the distance.

May 26


Nice day.


Nice distance.

May 28

Two miles, but I forgot to reset my pedometer.

May 30


Beautiful hydrangea I planted in our yard. Loren and I went for a walk, but I didn't take any pictures so this will do.

May 18-24

May 18


After I took this I saw a baby bunny following it's mom into the grass.



May 19


Action shot. I bought some new walking shorts. They're actually running shorts. But whatever.



May 21


Evening



May 23


My sister and I spent the night at my brother's house and went for a walk in his neighborhood the next day. We went in the morning, not super early or anything. But it was getting hot out. I prefer my evening walks.



May 24


Our next door neighbor has rebel flags attached to the back of his truck. Oh Alabama.

May 17

Soon to be blackberries


Me eating honeysuckle nectar

Updates!

Front


Back


I sent the final design for the t-shirts to the printer yesterday! We were supposed to meet a few weeks ago, but because of all that has been going on that was delayed. But they assured me they can have the shirts done in time. I made some more changes. It's simplified a bit and not as "hip" as the other. But I am very happy with it. I hope the team is as well. I wanted "Team Chris" to be in Cessna font- a small design detail. But my understanding is that there isn't a specific font for the planes, just guidelines set me the FAA. The shirt color is Maritime blue.

Depending on how the final product looks and people's interest, I was thinking of having some t-shirts made with just the front design and no 'Team Chris' to sell and give a % of the money to AFSP. We'll see.

We had a support group meeting this past week. Some new faces. I was trying to remember how many people have come to the support groups since started going. About 18 I think. In the fall, the SOS group leader Brad wants to have a candlelight vigil and event/ceremony. I might design shirts for that.

Brad usually has some handouts for us to take home. One of them had a quote I liked a lot-

"We do promise you a rose garden. We just can't promise you it will be totally without thorns."

He also passed out an article on activism. It is called "From Anguish to Activism: Transcending a Suicide Loss". Here's a link to the article.

Speaking of activism.....Team Chris has raised $12,553! I cannot believe it! I'm so proud of everyone for their efforts in fund raising and in donating. Thank you all! My best friend from high school donated to put me $1 over my final goal of $5,000. :) Thank you Laura!

Here's an update of my monthly distances
February- 31.7 miles
March- 32.8 miles
April- 64.77 miles
May- 23.57 miles so far

I can definitely pass my April distance. I have a whole half of the month left. Only 18 days left until the walk! I reposted a page on Facebook that tells the location of all the cheering stations for anyone interested.

May 8-14

My Grandma had a stroke two weeks ago and passed away on May 4. It was a very long week at the hospital, with family, and making arrangements. Not much time for walking.

May 8



May 10


Chinook. My Grandpa was involved with them somehow. He was a pilot and taught people how to fly. I'll have to ask him to tell me about it.



May 11


666...awesome. I thought about walking further so it would be 6.67, but decided to leave it at that.

May 13


There are honeysuckle and blackberry bushes all alongside the walking path in my neighborhood. When I was little, we had a honeysuckle bush in our backyard and I used to eat the nectar. They smell so good! I guess they are in full bloom right now because when you drive down the road with the car windows down you can smell them too.
When the blackberries are ready, I think I might put on some gloves and go picking.




May 14


Ugly day for a walk. My sister and I went to the park in TN where my Grandma lives. It was 90 and sunny last week. Now a cold front has come through and was rainy and 60 all weekend. But the weather's looking nicer this week.


There's some discrepancy with this distance. The path that my sister and I walked is 1 mile and we walked it 3 times. I checked along the way and we were on track, but I don't know what happened. So I'm going with 3 miles for this post.

April 28- May 2

April 28

The day after we got home from TN was the day that all of the tornadoes hit Alabama and other parts of the South. Just awful. My family and home are not damaged or hurt, thank goodness. But there are parts of my county and surrounding counties that were completely destroyed. The days following the tornadoes were oddly very beautiful. We were without power until that Saturday and without internet/cable for a week which is also why I didn't make any posts.







On my walk the following day, I saw a lot of debris- shingles, plywood, siding, insulation- scattered around my neighborhood. Even half of a Merle Haggard tape. I also found newspapers, fliers, and parts of a phone book from about 88 miles away.

April 30


Not a cloud in the sky. Beautiful blue!


Going the distance...or 1/3 of it!

May 2

No pictures from this walk. :/

April 23-26

I haven't updated my blog in quite some time. I apologize. It's been a busy couple of weeks. I have been walking though. So I'm going to make three posts, condensing my last three weeks of walking.

I was in TN visiting with all my mom's family on my birthday weekend (April 24). We did a lot of walking, but many of our walks were cut short by scary neighbor's dogs. :( My aunt lives out in the country, much more country than where I live. I went on short walks with my mom, sister, and cousins a few times a day. It is beautiful where my aunt lives, and I got to spend some time with family. Unfortunately toward the end of our stay, I misplaced my pedometer and don't get GPS on my phone there, so there are a few miles not logged. About 3.5 I'd say. And my aunts dog got into a fight with the neighbors dog, like almost killed it, so we ended our walks a little early.





For my Tennessee trip I walked-
2.32
1.73
1.98
1.80
2.0
1.52

Totalling 11.35 miles for the four days.