I mentioned yesterday that the Finger Lakes were formed during the last ice age and are thus quite young: a few tens of thousands of years. But they have company, in the form of a number of spectacular narrow gorges. The best known of these is Watkins Glen at the foot of Seneca Lake. It’s an insanely photogenic canyon, 400 ft (120 m) deep and about a mile and a half (2.5 km) long. If you walk the whole length — we did about half — you’ll go up and down something like 890 steps, and you’l see 19 waterfalls.

The geology of the gorges is interesting. They are sedimentary rock, a mix of shale, limestone, and sandstone. These differ a great deal in their hardness and thus their rates of erosion, resulting in a number of natural staircase-like rock formations.

That’s today’s geology lesson, so here are some photos…

To be honest, I’m not sure where or when I began to make my way back to the unhealthy train; it could have been somewhere around the time we lost our baby girl Naya between 15 & 17 weeks, when I didn’t get to graduate last spring, or it could have been over the summer as financial struggles set in. All I know is that over the past 6-9 months I have steadily creeped my “weigh” back up the scale and onto the Naughty list for the Army, known as the Height & Weight Program.

Last time I was here, documenting my progress and more importantly, my journey, helped me reach my goals quickly and I received some positive feedback from others, that I was a bit of motivation for them; with that in mind, I’m going to document the journey again and hopefully do it more consistently too.

So…

There’s nothing quite like waking up about 10 a.m. to the smell of succulent turkey, the haze of soft light reflecting through an ice covered window, and the sound of Grandpa telling someone we have 2 inches of snow on the ground already. This is Thanksgiving in Nebraska.

Luckily my grandpa has a couple exercise machines in his basement. This morning I started my day by replying to “Happy Thanksgiving” texts, giving my fingers a work out of their own, and then ran for 15 minutes. I finished just over a mile by the time I was done. I hopped in the shower, made some eggs, and sat down to blog.The Macy’s Day parade and Purina Dog Show are on; however, just because it’s the holiday doesn’t mean you can’t stay motivated and focused.

As I run, I image a turkey, running away from thanksgiving dinner. He has ruffled feathers…

This is a journal I picked up from Walmart for about $3.50. I am using it to document my pregnancy journey. I’m not writing it for myself though, I’m writing it as if I’m speaking to my unborn child.

Each day or every few days, I write a simple little “note” to my baby. I date each entry, write each entry in a different color, and write the exact week & day that I am in the pregnancy.

I also left a little note in the front of the journal with the approximate conception date and expected arrival. After baby arrives I will write his/her birthday and full name on the back cover page.

I feel like there are many benefits to this on top of it being a neat idea.

1. Helps begin the bonding process with your baby. You could even read it out loud “to” your unborn…

HAHAHAHA
Anyone who truly knows me, knows how ditzy, clumsy, and “blonde” I can be. My new suggested nickname is steady solidifying itself (Murphy). Anyone who has seen my most recent Snapchat Story got the full version somewhat live in action. Hope this makes someone smile haha.

So I came home after viewing a house and I had to use the restroom really bad (Thank you Baby Campbell). I set my purse down on my bed and rushed into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me. My door knob has been messed up since we moved in. Yesterday I realized if you closed the door you would get locked inside but luckily my guest let me out. I did this not only once, but three times yesterday. You would think I would learn. So today, as the door shut behind me I froze… I realized a second too late what…