Jen Russum

The Wish List

The Wish List

A few months ago, Micah told me I should make a "wish list" of items I would like to buy in the near future. Micah was in the process of making his own, and it was very organized. He had it divided into four categories by estimated cost: under $50, under $100, $100-$300, and over $300. I wish I could remember everything on his list. I know he had an electric guitar in the $100-$300 range. I am pretty sure he had a skateboard in the under $100 category. But there were so many other things too - things like windsurfers and kite boards and surfboards and stuff like that. There must have been AT LEAST ten things on this list. At least. Basically, if there is a piece of sports equipment that ends with the word "board" it's probably on his list. Then Micah told me his overall plan is to get the things on the list, but to try to get them in a lower price range than what he has estimated. For example, he bought an electric guitar a few months ago (and has used it about twice I might add...) and he was expecting to spend between $150-200 on it. Then he met a guy who sells random stuff at wholesale prices and he got a brand new guitar and an amp for $80. So he succeeded in getting one of his $100-300 items in the under $100 category. You get the idea. Then Micah told me I should make my own wish list and organize it the same way. I thought about it for a little while and I couldn't really think of ANYTHING I want right now. It's not that I am anti-material possessions or something. In fact, I wish I desired the material less than I do. It's just that I am not as organized about my spending as Micah is and I don't plan, dream, and scheme about toys I want to buy. I just figure I will spend my extra money on cute clothes or something... I mean I've been looking for new white flats for a few years now. I guess I can put that on my wish list - if only some designer would FINALLY make some attractive white flats for me to purchase this season because the selection since 2005 has been pretty dismal! Yes, that's how long I've been wearing the same white shoes. Thankfully, I still live by the no white after labor day rule (even though I know this rule doesn't really exist), so I've been able to stretch their life span. But, really, it's time. They are on their death bed. Anyway, so I couldn't think of anything I really wanted and Micah was disappointed. Then finally a few days later, I thought of one thing that I really want to add to my wish list...a new camera. A big, fancy digital camera with a big, fancy lens to replace my horrible point and shoot. That's what I want. Like a Canon Rebel or something similar. This would definitely be in the (far above!) $300 category, but it's the only thing on my list, so I figure it's okay. So I excitedly told Micah I finally thought of something to add to my wishlist - a camera - and he told me he didn't believe me! What?! He said he thought I was just making it up to have something on my list and I don't really want a camera and I won't really use it, etc. etc. I made the point that I have run out of room on my hard drive because I have too many pictures on my computer, but he still refused to accept that I want a camera. It's not like I'm asking him to buy it for me. I am just asking for him to acknowledge that I want one. But he won't. Oh, and I've been asking for a turntable for probably the last bajillion Christmases and birthdays (or like five or six) and he refuses to acknowledge that I want one of those too. I guess I've been asking for a turntable for so long and been so blatantly denied that it's not even wish list-worthy anymore. Apparently, only boys who like toys that end with the word "board" get to have wish lists... ... Read more

Lunges

Lunges

Lunges. They are the best exercise in the world. But I hate them. Oh, how I hate them. They work all those problem areas on my thighs and butt. But they hurt me. One time back in college, my roommates and I had a roommate night. (We were very dedicated to having a roommate night every month or two. Must have been good prep for date nights now that we are married and live with BOYS! Ew :) So we had many roommate nights, but on this particular night we decided to do lunges. Around the block lunges. I don't know why. I think this was our senior year when Stacey and Sarah were engaged, so this was our idea of a pre-wedding workout. We decided we would do walking lunges down our block, turn right, turn right again, down the street behind our house, turn right, back to our place. It seemed fun and funny at the time. However, those walking lunges were the last walking we did for a few days... Gosh, I have never been in so much pain. I could hardly walk for the next 2-3 days. I remember having to hold onto the roof of my car and gently lower myself into the driver's seat. It was bad. Lesson learned: never go from doing no lunges to doing a 1/4 mile of lunges all in one night. It's not pretty.  Here is a pic of my college roommates. We are the Greenhouse Girls. Clearly, we are not doing lunges here. We are getting Camille married off. Last year, I made lunges a regular part of my workouts. And I must say I got pretty good at them. I did different types in the months before my own wedding and I was very happy with the results. I also lifted weights and did ab exercises daily. It got to the point where Micah told me to stop lifting such heavy weights on my arms, because he didn't want me to get flabby later on! I was slightly offended that he would brush off my success in the weight room with such disdain (I am NOT known for my upper body strength, so this was quite a feat). But then my dad agreed with him! They said I should lower my weight and increase my reps for toning. Neither of them had confidence that I would maintain my lifting in the long run and they were right... While I have been running a ton this first year of marriage (hello Phoenix half-marathon), I have NOT been toning. I know the truth - resistance training is just as important as cardio - but I have been turning a deaf ear for the past nine months. Well, summer is here and one of my summer goals is to add strength training and ab exercises back into my workouts. So this week, I made the attempt. I decided to do some lunges and abs after my run on Saturday. Since I haven't been doing lunges lately, I tried to ease myself back into it. I did twelve walking lunges (six on each leg) and two other kinds of bench lunges like this... These lunges are super hard. The first kind I do are the ones the lady is doing above (except I don't look anything like the lady above and I will not provide pictures of my sweaty, gross self doing lunges for the first time in months). I didn't even use weights on Saturday to help ease myself into it. The second type I do is exactly like the picture above, but intead of just lunging down and rising up, you jump up! Both of these lunges are pretty intense, so I only did three of each type per leg. I thought I was safe. That I would be a little sore, but due to the moderation of my workout I would be okay. I am not okay. I hurt. I took a day off from working out and yesterday I tried to go running again. My legs felt heavy and achy. (Okay, the heavy part might have been caused by the SMASHBURGER I ate for lunch), but the achy part was due to the lunges. My legs are not recovering. I stretched on Sunday and yesterday but today I still hurt. I am trying to stretch in discreet ways while sittting in my workshop. Yes, I am blogging in my workshop about teaching online. See how savvy I am online? I can even blog during my workshop. Bam. Anyway, the lunges are back. They are my worst enemy and my best friend. I will be popping some ibuprofen and doing them again this afternoon. Anything that hurts me this much must be good for me. ... Read more

Summer Goals

As I explained in my last post, I am completely in love, absolutely obsessed with summer! One of my favorite things about summer is the extra time to get ISH done. (Yes, "ish" is a part of my regular vocabulary.) For those of you that haven't been in school for quite awhile, you may have forgotten why school breaks are so necessary. School is intense for both students and teachers. It's like a full-time job crammed into 8-9 months. And it's different than any other full-time job. For students, they take anywhere from 6-12 different classes over 9 months' time and get graded on every single one. They have little control over the teachers they work with and often have to take subjects that are completely unrelated to anything they ever want to do for a career. For teachers, you have all our regular professional duties like preparing lesson plans (figuring out what you are going to teach and when), typing up assignment sheets and syllabi (so students will know what they are doing), physically teaching your classes (trying to cram new knowledge into sometime reluctant minds), meeting with students to give further instruction, resolve problems, deal with immaturity, and then grading and recording all student work. It's pretty fatiguing and you always take work home with you. But on top of all these responsibilites, you also deal with certain emotional burdens. You try to help students who struggle academically. You try to overcome student apathy, laziness or downright disrespect. You try to balance compassion and grace with firm expectiations and fixed boundaries, and sometimes that means you are the one teaching a student a hard lesson about responsibility. You often become a part of students' personal issues such as parent problems, depression, anxiety, break-ups, sickness, etc. You try NOT to become involved in these issues (and thankfully you get to be far more separated from them when teaching college instead of high school - praise Jesus!), but you can never avoid them completely. So teachers get breaks because they are absolutely necessary for our mental and emotional health. The almost endless cycle of grading essays needs a stopping point and that point is NOW. I do not have to grade another essay until September 27th, 2011. So what will I do until then? EVERYTHING. A number of years ago, my friend Kristin and I started creating summer goals. These goals ranged from the funny (watch all three Back to the Future movies in one sitting or learn to play chess), to the practical (paint room or work out three days a week) to the deeply significant (read or memorize Scripture). You get the idea. Since we started doing this (gosh, it must have been five or six years ago now) many of our friends have begun doing the same thing. So here are my goals for Summer 2011. I have no papers to grade, nothing I am being forced to read, and a lot of extra time on my hands. I have never been one for laziness, so here is what will be filling my time for the next three months: FIRST AND FOREMOST... FINISH WEDDING THANK YOUS BY THE END OF MAY. Reading: Catch up on reading recent additions of Real Simple that are sitting in a box next to my couch Read remaining issues of Domino (R.I.P.) that have been sitting around my house for a couple years now Read Radical Womanhood by Carolyn  McCulley Start Systematic Theology by Grudem (goal to be done by the end of summer 2012) Finish Future Grace by John Piper Get a basic grasp on qualitative research methods and read three books for my mommy blog paper Okay enough reading...I do too much reading during the year... Let's get to the fun stuff, like... Clean out house (every cupboard, closet, corner and cranny - what's a cranny?) and prepare to move Find a house to buy in Phoenix! Watch Calamity Jane and Waiting for Superman Upload old pics onto facebook Blog five days a week Get basic sewing supplies and fix/update a few articles of clothing in our closet Update i-tunes library (get rid of stupid songs I never listen to and buy new music) Print and frame a picture for Micah's desk at work Make deviled eggs for Micah  Add weights and abs back into my workouts (at least 2x per week) Make homemade Moon Pies Organize my recipe binder Begin a Scripture memorization plan Start growing a small herb garden (so I can be a true homemaker) ... Read more