My Stinky New Friend

It seems like this happens each year around this time. I start feeling like a giant, lazy slug that's stuck in my house because of winter and the frigid temperatures outside. The frigid temperatures are slowly becoming bearable temperatures which make me want to become more active. So I dug out my fitbit and my athletic pants from the bottom of my drawer, strapped on my Nikes and outside I went.

I've been trying to log the recommended 10,000 steps daily and that requires either a brisk walk outside or a ride on the treadmill. I nearly always prefer outside. I've been changing things up and going the opposite way I normally do for my walks. This makes me walk past one of the neighbors houses that adopts all the drop off dogs. We get quite a few stray dogs each year and those sweet people take them in, neuter them and get their skinny little bodies back up to weight. Right now they have five dogs that run out to greet me as I walk by. Most are sweet, one is standoffish and there is one that barks aggressively but doesn't harm me. I've decided the best way to deal with the swarm of dogs is to become their friend.

This worked pretty good, although now instead of barking at me and then going back home, one of the five dogs follows me on my 3 mile walk. He's a sweet dog.

He walks with me and keeps me company, occasionally finding a stream to bathe in. He climbs up the bank and makes sure to stand right next to me before shaking the creek water off. He's my stinky new friend.

Each time I go for my walk now he runs from his house and joins me. It's nice to be outside and active again getting fresh air and sunlight. I feel less like a slug each day.

Record Highs

Nothing puts me in a better mood than record breaking high temperatures in January. Seeing 70 degrees in the dead of winter is truly lovely. We've been outside enjoying it every chance we can get. I gotta say the trampoline was one of the best investments we've ever made. All four of us get exercise on that thing....and it's fun exercise! If you are ever thinking of getting one, just do it. If ours broke tomorrow we'd immediately order another.

We made a family outing to the local park. Even with the 60 degree weather the big pond was still in the process of thawing. Half was thawed, half was frozen. The Canadian geese were all standing on the ice. Silly birds.

 

I follow a running blog called Runs for Cookies and every year for her birthday she has a virtual 5K. What is a virtual 5K you ask? Well, you sign up on her site and then on a certain day you run or walk 3.1 miles either indoors on a treadmill or outside. Then you do a finshers report where you enter your time it took to run or walk the 5K. So Sunday I drove into town and ran my 3.1 miles. It was horrible! I, apparently, picked the day with 35-45 mph winds to go running. We were actually in a wind advisory and it was North winds so they were bitterly cold. I'm running into this wind and can't understand why my face is covered in snot. It's literally everywhere. I wasn't congested or anything, but the freezing wind just caused it to explode out of my face. I'm sure this is more information than you need, I'm just painting a picture here. A very gross picture.  I just about turned around and went home, but I didn't. I ran those three horrible miles with an equally horrid time of 32:40. So glad that's done. I think I'll wait until spring to put on my running shoes again. 

One thing I was excited to try out on this run was the key pad on the Ford Edge. I took it into the dealership and had them reset the code so that I could actually use it to get into the car. I was debating on whether I'd ever use it. If I had the key why use the key pad? When I drive into town to go running and don't want to run with keys, I can lock them inside the car with my purse and then key in my code to get into the car after the run. Very cool!

Dreary

There is this crazy thing going on outside this very moment. I believe it's called rain. We haven't experienced the stuff in months (I kid you not). We so desperately need rain and I'm so happy it's actually coming down. But with it being dreary outside I feel like doing absolutely nothing. In fact, I'm exhausted. I have no reason to be exhausted, yet here I am sitting on the couch trying to stay awake and it's only 9:30 in the morning. I so need a life. I'd love to go do something but there is nothing to do. Greta and I are hunkering down at home until this crazy flu epidemic has passed. Greta got her flu shot back in the fall but I skipped it this year. Not intentionally, just kept putting it off. Now I'm relying on eating healthy, exercising and keeping myself away from large groups of people to keep the flu at bay. Since I'm stuck at home all day it shouldn't be a problem.

The exercising is ramping back up after little break over the Holiday's.  I get 30 minutes on the treadmill daily (except for the weekends when I'm too lazy) and I've been trying to get downstairs to the BowFlex once a week. I think the key to getting on the treadmill daily is to look forward to something while exercising. For me it started out with Podcasts. I love downloading podcasts to the Shuffle and listening while I ran or walked. I still like podcasts but only once a week. My favorite thing to listen to: This American Life. It's a random compilation of stories from around the country. I love it! Fascinating stuff. The other thing that keeps me on the treadmill for half an hour is reading. I don't know if everyone can do this but I enjoy reading while speed walking. I set the incline at the steepest (mine is 10%) and walk as fast as I can while holding a book. This has been my favorite thing to do until this week when we finally joined the 21st century and bought a tablet. It's just an el cheapo Android tablet from Amazon (whopping $70) but I LOVE it. I set it up and watch NetFlix while running. I'm currently making my way through the many seasons of Grey's Anatomy. It sure makes the time fly.

Now if only I could find something to make this morning fly by.

Counting

I don't know why I look at Pinterest. I just get hungry. I want to make every recipe on there but if I did I'd weigh 300 pounds. Just this morning I found this homemade recipe for Butterfinger bars. As if having two candy buckets brimmed full of Halloween candy wasn't enough. Ugh. I've been doing so good too. You see I've started calorie counting as of two weeks ago and it's going a lot smoother than I thought it would. I felt I needed to do something since Fall and Winter are the months I tend to put on a little weight. I just don't have it in me to run this winter. In fact I don't know where the motivation came from last year....I suppose the half marathon in the spring had something to do with it. I've been focusing on weights three days a week, doing the BowFlex in the basement but cardio is just not happening.

I started using an awesome website called MyFitnessPal.com. It's free and it tracks what you eat, calorie intake and exercise. The food database is great, I've yet to find a food that isn't in there (even the Red Lobster menu the other evening). When I logged in the first time it asks your height, weight and goal weight and then creates a calorie goal to get you to your goal weight. I'm not trying to loose many pounds...just a few, really just trying to maintain over the winter until I get back to running in the spring. So far so good, four pounds down in two weeks. Give it a try!

Saturday

My legs feel like jello right now. For some strange reason I felt the need to run a local 5K this morning. It was cancelled last weekend due to the rain so I felt I was off the hook but then they rescheduled it. It would have been much more enjoyable had I run at all in the past month. Turns out training is needed even for little 3 mile races. Oh well, I made it. It was tough though. About half way through one side of my brain is saying "What the heck were you thinking?" Then the other side of the brain is saying "Wuss, you did 13 miles with no problem earlier this year!". Didn't do too bad, finished with a 29:14. Not my best 5K time, but I'll take it. I think it's time to start running on a regular basis again.

We were invited to an open house at the aircraft company my father works at. So today, after the race, we all loaded in the car and headed into town. The kids were excited because I promised them they could go explore some airplanes. I'm always excited to get them out of the house, they have been wound up lately. It was a lovely day with live music, good food, fun things to do, trolley rides and big airplanes. I'm thankful my dad invited us, it was a lot of fun.

Slacker

It's been very difficult to get back into running since returning home from vacation. With the birthday party last weekend and the darn heat I just can't seem to find the motivation. I drug myself out this morning bright and early after getting only a few hours of sleep. Our anniversary was yesterday (11th!) and it turns out we have an awesome babysitter right under out noses. Rich hung out on the couch while the kids slept and Sean and I escaped to feed on snow crab and catch a movie. We were able to stay out as late as we wanted on a Saturday night. We couldn't remember the last time we went out on a Saturday night. It was pre-kids...so at least 5 years. Boy it was nice. But we got home in the wee hours of the morning and those kids are up bright and early regardless of how much sleep we got. So I figured I'd drag myself up and out the door.

Today's run was a far cry from running in the mountains. I surprised myself and got 11 miles in while on vacation. It took a day or so to acclimate to the altitude in which I speed walked but didn't have any problems with the altitude. The cabin is around 9500 feet I believe. Can't really beat this view while breathing that cool mountain air (it sure beat the 90 degree air at 8:30 this morning).

About half way through the trip I got back to the cabin and was talking with my Dad. The conversation went something like this:

Dad: "Did you have a good run" 


Me: "Yeah. Ran down and walked up the mountains"


Dad: "Good. I was talking to one of the neighbors up here and they were telling me about the bear."


Me: gulp "What bear?!?"


Dad: "There is a resident bear in the neighborhood. But don't worry about him, he'll go out of his way to stay out of your way."


Me: "Oh goody."


Dad: "He's not really what you need to worry about, it's the mountain lion that will get ya."

And that ended any future running in the mountains for that vacation. From that point on I kept it to the hotel treadmill on the way home. My dad thinks I should carry a small handgun with me while running, not just in the mountains but here in the flat lands as well. A friend of my in-laws carries a gun while running down in New Mexico. They have mean tusked pigs that roam wild called Havalina and she's prepared in case she runs into one. We don't have to worry about bears, mountain lions or havalina around here but out in the country, where I run, we do have pit bulls and other dogs that run around in packs. I haven't ran into any mean dogs in the past year of running but it's probably only a matter of time.

So I've been researching holsters for our little Ruger and there are tons of ways to carry a gun but not many that are meant for running / jogging. The forums have people saying the thigh holsters rub, the belly holsters jiggle and the under arm holsters rub your arm raw while exercising. I'll have to keep doing my research but I'm starting to think I might have to haul out the sewing machine and make something out of cotton that straps to my back (that's what I see when I think of a running holster). Hmm....I think I just hijacked my running post and turned it into a gun post.

One foot in front of the other

I'm still running. Hard to believe the half marathon was four weeks ago. I've been keeping the weekly mileage pretty small ever since, between 4-6 miles. I'm just running on the weekends now and I've had to revamp that lately. Last weekend I went for a four mile run in town around 3ish in the afternoon and it was 83 degrees out. No biggie right? Wrong! It was hot and humid and downright miserable. I started getting goose bumps around mile three and decided I'm done with afternoon runs. So this morning I got out nice and early and ran a glorious six miles on the dirt roads. Felt great and thus I've found my new summer routine.

During the week I've been messing around with weights in a desperate attempt at creating a swimsuit ready body. The kids are having swimming lessons next month and I cringe at the thought of putting on a swimming suit. Jillian Michaels has been helping me too. I love her new DVD titled "Ripped in 30". It's much like the "30 Day Shred" but offers four different workouts instead of three and changes it up quite a bit (I was getting a bit bored with the 30 Day Shred). The only problem I'm finding these days? Now that both kids have officially given up nap time it makes it darn near impossible to get even a 25 minute workout in. They jump on me when I'm doing sit ups or take off with the weights. It's a bit frustrating. But oh well, they will both be in school soon enough and I'll have so much time to myself I won't know what to do (I just giggled like a school girl at the thought). Well, off to get some work done.

13.1

I did it! I finished my very first half marathon today. Whew! That was sure something. Woke up at 5 am to the sound of rain, thunder and lightening. I went ahead and got ready and headed out just in case it slowed down. It didn't. Ran the whole 13.1 in a downpour. Torrential at times.  It would have been funny if it didn't suck so much. Actually it didn't suck, it was awesome. Running along with some 1500 other people that came out to run in the rain was awesome and an experience I won't soon forget. By mile marker three I was soaking wet from head to toe and the shoes were sloshing. I thought the iPod would drown but it kept on trucking. I kept on truckin' too! I ran the whole darn thing.  I didn't walk at all. I surprised myself even. It's good to surprise yourself once and awhile. Prove to yourself you can do stuff you didn't think you could do.

This was a fitting end to a year of running. A year ago I bought a treadmill with the sole desire to try and run one mile without stopping.  After several weeks I was able to do that, so I challenged myself to run two miles and so forth. Treadmill running lead to road running and my first 5K last October. Along the way 18 pounds came off which was a welcome side effect. All in all this was a life changing year and today was no exception. Thank you to my awesome husband, Father in law, kids and parents for braving the nasty weather to come watch me cross that finish line. It was sure nice to see people cheering you on at the end. Hmm what's next, perhaps a full marathon is in the future. The distant future!

Official time: 2 hours 13 minutes Woo Hoo!

 I ran with Hubby's phone that has a running app on it. Kind of forgot to stop it so the time isn't correct.  Check out the calorie burnt box in the upper right hand corner. That's nearly 1600 calories baby! Really didn't feel bad about stuffing my face with pancakes after the race.

Week from today

A week from today I'll be running my very first half marathon. That's 13.1 miles. The training has been going ok. It was severely derailed early on with the sprained ankle but it's been ramping up over the past several weeks. I was supposed to do a long run last weekend (12 miles) but I only got 8 done due to the 400 mph winds we were having. I kid you not, I would open up my mouth and the wind would blow out my cheeks like I was in a wind tunnel. I felt like a football player running into one of those padded sleds. It was horrible. So technically I never got in the really long run...which is worrisome. But I'll be fine. I've done several 7+ milers and today's 5 mile run was awesome with a 9:40 average mile ( a good time for me). I don't think I'll die.

I'm going to share with you a runners secret which I've just discovered. They are called energy gels. Little packages of condensed calories and electrolytes that you suck down 15 minutes before running and 45 minutes into the run. I went to our local sporting goods store and picked up several to experiment with. I got the GU Energy gels and two packages of the Honey Stinger energy chews.  The GU Energy gel is like chocolate frosting with caffeine. So yum! I tried the double espresso flavor (not a coffee drinker but still good) before today's run and was so jittery (but in a good way) when I got out of the car that I think I could have did the run doing cart wheels. It was awesome. Oh and the energy chews are like candy that you eat every 10 minutes or so. I'm hypoglycemic so these little jewels will work at keeping the old blood sugars level. I'm so happy I discovered this stuff, it will make this race doable.

So anyways, send good vibes next Sunday morning at 7:30...I'm going to need them. 

Hello Spring

It rained the entire last week. Nonstop. Then I looked out the window and, seemingly over night, it erupted into Spring. Glorious, wonderful Spring. Spend five days cooped up inside with two little megalomaniacs (during Spring Break I might add) and you too will bust open the door just as soon as that rain stops and lay in the sun for hours. And that is just what I did. I laid down on the drive way while my children drew chalk outlines around my comatose body. It looked like a murder scene when we were done that day. It made me think about why I like Spring, of course there are the easy ones: sun, flowers, baby animals and dancing happy kids. Here are a few more.

Coveralls and muck boots. Feeding the animals gets a bit messy but we all know April showers bring May flowers....and some really muddy horses. 

 

Weeds up to my knees (quite literally). I look forward to mowing. Not many things in this world bring the instant gratification as a nicely mowed and trimmed lawn. Bring on the mowing!

Running on the dirt. Spring means more running outside in nature, not inside with curious kids and the treadmill (seriously, have you ever tried to run on a treadmill while a two year old wants to investigate how it works?).

Outside time with the kids. Time to blow off all that winter energy! Did I mention I build a pretty mean sand castle?

Painting toe nails and getting out the cute sandals. I love girling it up with my mini me. You can hardly tell but she's got herself on a pair of Jelly shoes...blast from my past.

Tidbits

-Lent started last Wednesday and I decided to give up sweets. We're talking cookies, cake, candy....pretty much anything with sugar in it. I thought it would be easy but it's been rather difficult. I didn't think I ate many sweets but it turns out I would sneak stuff during the day without even realizing it. You know, opening a package of gummy snacks for the kids and taking one before handing the package over. Or eating the leftover half cookie that the kid didn't eat for lunch. Even ice cream has been calling my name and I don't even like ice cream. I give the kids some and usually eat what is left over on the spoon. So yeah, it's been tough. But nothing prepared me for what the hubby brought home last week. My willpower hasn't ever been tested as much as when he sheepishly plunked down six boxes of Girl Scout cookies he got from work. Two whole boxes of Caramel Delights, my personal favorite, which he got just for me (such a sweetie). So I promptly cleared the back of the freezer, shoved five boxes back there and stuffed food in front of them to hide them (Hubby ate the sixth box). They will hopefully be forgotten until Easter when I can devour them in their entirety. Six short weeks from now. Nom nom nom.

-Let us bow our heads in mourning of Greta's nap. It's done. No more. I stick her in her crib, lay her down, cover her up and she spends the next hour singing songs, dancing in her crib, pulling stuff off her walls, chewing on her crib....doing anything but sleeping. Then yesterday she learned how to climb out of her crib. So I give up. It's a sad sad day. No more peaceful hour to myself while Wesley is at preschool. It's ok though, she now joins Wesley in his quiet time with cartoons and does pretty good. The upside to all this? She goes to sleep promptly at 7:30pm and sleeps all night until 8:30am. RIP nap time.

-There is something wrong with the dog. Cody, the black lab, sleeps in our living room each night. The other two dogs sleep in their crates. Cody never liked the crate, even tried to do himself bodily harm to escape from it. This arrangement has worked pretty good until about six months ago. Every night he wakes me up once or twice and I let him outside. He runs out there, does his business and runs back in.  It's getting old. It's like having a baby in the house again. I'm exhausted. He's got me trained well and I just don't know how to curb it. If you leave him outside he barks all night to get back in. If you take the water dish up he wants to go out to get a drink. If you leave the water dish down he drinks all night and has to go outside to urinate. So darn frustrating.

-I'm back out on the road running. Yesterday was the first run since I sprained my ankle four weeks ago. The doctor said 1-2 weeks for it to heal, yeah right! Apparently I'm a complete wuss bag. It's still not "right" and gets all stiff at times. But it did pretty good on the 6 mile run/walk I did yesterday (mostly walk). I'm glad to be back to training....that half marathon in April will be here before I know it.

Figures

As I mentioned in a previous post, the half marathon training is in full swing. I've been logging about 9 miles during the week on the treadmill and then I do one long(ish) run on the weekend. So yesterday I head out at nap time (or the glory time as I call it). I mapped out a nice six mile run on the dirt roads around our house. I've learned to enjoy running on the dirt roads. It's much lower impact than pavement, nicer scenery, almost no cars. The down side is when a car does go by you get eat dust and there are dogs. I'm not a fan of free roaming dogs, they almost always seeing a running person as a target. So I got myself a nice can of Mace that straps to my hand. At least I feel a bit more prepared in case a set of pit bulls start heading my way.  Anyways, the long six mile run went great. I got a phone holder for my arm that holds the hubby's smart phone. He loaded a running app on it that keeps track of my speed and distance. It was awesome and will be used for future runs.

I get home from this run yesterday, pick up the dog to take him outside and proceed to fall down the back steps. Heard a snap and the next thing I know I'm laying in the dirt, the dog ran off (but came back) and my ankle hurts like hell. Sprained the darn thing. I've sprained my ankle many times in my youth but this had to be the most painful one. The whole evening I just laid on the couch like a veal. Ice and Ibuprofen seemed to do the trick. Poor Sean got to feed the kids, bathe them, get them to bed and feed all the animals. I'm sure thankful to have him around! I just got back from the doctors office, had to rule out a broken ankle. No broken bones, just a whole lot of swelling. Thank goodness. Doc said no running for at least two weeks. Dang. Figures, I have a nice long run with no problems and then fall down two steps when I get home.

Accountability

So I'm going for it. I found a local half marathon the end of April and I'm officially training for it. Although not much is changing in the training department. I am now running three miles, three days a week and then doing a long run outside on the weekends (either Saturday or Sunday). My "long" run on the weekends has been only four miles because I lack motivation to make it any longer. That is going to change now (I hope). The only roadblock I can foresee is the weather actually becoming more like winter. It's been unseasonably warm lately. Like 60 degrees, kids playing in the sandbox warm. It's awesome.  I suppose the dreadmill, I mean treadmill, will work in a pinch for the long run but for some reason I hate running on that thing when the kids and hubby are around on the weekends.

One thing that is making the longer three mile treadmill runs doable is our fancy new cordless headphones (Santa brought them ;). I put them on, go to streaming NetFlix and run while watching a Vampire Diaries (don't judge me, they aren't all that bad...Sean even watches them). A 45 minute show makes running almost enjoyable.

I can't forget to mention the music. For the long outside runs I've been venturing out and listening to all sorts of music. I used to be a strictly country music gal. But it's difficult to run to country, so I've been experimenting with pop and rock and like it! I'm now a big fan of groups I'd never even heard of six months ago. My current favorites are Coldplay and Mumford & Sons, but I'm sure I'll be into something else by next month. Gotta keep it fresh. I'll definitely need some fresh tunes to run the 13.1 miles on April 29th. Can you tell I'm pumped?

Resolutions

2011 was a big year of personal growth for me. I hope 2012 is equally enlightening. With the beginning of a new year brings new resolutions. Here are mine:

1. Be a happy mom. It's simple to write, I wish it was as simple to accomplish. Being home with my children every day is great. I'm happy that I can do this for them. But if we are being honest here, sometimes they drive me nuts. Hide in a closet nuts. By the end of the day I'm counting down the minutes until the Hubby comes home to take some of the crazy off of my shoulders. They are young (4 & 2) so I'm hopeful that this is a stage and the crazy screaming, running through the house hitting each other phase will at some point fade and they will be easier to handle. But until then, my resolution is to be a less stressed, more well adjusted, non screaming, happy mom to my kids.

2. Keep running. I've found that the key to my happiness lies in a piece of equipment in the living room. The treadmill. Running keeps the crazies away, and it's a whole lot cheaper than therapy. Ever since I started running regularly (back in May) I've been a much more even keeled person. The ups and downs of life are easier to handle, as are the children. Endorphins are magical things, I'd even go as far to say that I'm addicted to them. I'm logging about 10 miles a week right now but hope to increase that gradually as the weather warms up. Running is time just for me, no kids screaming at me, no dogs barking, no worries at all. It's much needed "me" time, something that we all need...not just the mom's of the world.  This year I will keep running.

3. Have more dates. When kids come along it's really easy to fall into the rut of being a parent. After all, it consumes every waking hour. This year I will make time to have more date nights with my husband. We are also planning a trip to Hawaii (a second honeymoon perhaps?). Now just to find a babysitter that will take the kids for a week.

4. Blog more! I've taken a little hiatus from blogging over the past several months and I'm going to try and get back to it. Here's hoping!

Monster Dash

I ran in my very first 5K this past weekend. My sister invited me up to Kansas City to run with her and Blake in the Monster Dash on Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun! I've been running nearly daily for the past couple of months and felt it was time to try out a road race. What I wasn't prepared for was how long 3 miles felt! I run 3 miles all the time but I know where the end is when I run on the dirt roads. This race was through town and around every turn I was expecting the finish line. It was a lesson in patience. What also made it fun was that you were able to dress up in costume for the race. I spent a large portion of the race just chuckling at the characters running along side me. We had the clan of zombie cheerleaders, the gal in the massacred bunny suit, the guy in the tequila suit with this partner in a lime suit and we can't forget the woman in the Jane Fonda workout suit (I don't think I can erase that image even if I tried). Betsy, Blake and I all donned wigs and capes and I had some witch tights (which helped keep me warm but still froze since it was 39 degrees). I wanted to bust my butt and do a 9 minute mile (which is fast for me) but ended up with a 9.2 mile which I'm still really happy with. It will make a good challenge to try and beat my time of 28 minutes in the next 5K. I plan to find another one around home soon. Thanks for inviting me Sis!

My sis, brother-in-law and I before the race....so early it's still dark out.

What have we been up to?

Nothing much really. This is the time of year that we slow down. This summer really knocked it out of me, energy wise. Maybe it was the 53 days of 100 degree temperatures, or maybe it was something else. Sean tackled one of the biggest projects he's ever tackled, the house siding. We are so glad to knock that off the giant 'to do' list. Now that Fall is officially here we have just been wrapping up loose ends, preparing for winter.

Sean bought a new toy about a month a half ago. He's been itching for a new milling machine but they rarely come along falling into our price range. Yet one day he was surfing Craigslist and ran across a Bridgeport milling machine that was spot on. It's rough and in need of a lot of TLC, but a project is what he wanted so it was perfect. He hooked up the truck to a rented trailer and off he went to pick it up. Ever since it's been home he's been out there nearly every evening working on it. Removing rust, making gears work again. He's going to turn it into a CNC machine. The only problem he's run into is that the ceiling in the shop isn't tall enough for this machine, so he's had to make a few "modifications" to the ceiling.

And here is his new toy, in pieces due to it's size.

I've taken up a new hobby. Running! I bought a treadmill about a year ago and was jogging on it on and off and then got motivated to start using it regularly. So I started using it daily. I felt good, had more energy than ever.....something I was lacking. With two little kids running around, energy was in short supply. My goals started out small. Run one mile a day on the treadmill. After a few weeks I was able to do that. So I bumped it up to two miles a day, then three. I'm in between two and three a day right now and I feel great! I never thought I could be a runner, it's nice to prove yourself wrong. My sister told me I should try running on the road and so last weekend I ran through our little town logging five miles. It was fun but much harder on my joints. I got some new shoes and tried it again yesterday, logging 6.5 miles. It was fun and I'm motivated to get out again next weekend. Maybe a marathon will be in my future...my goal is to do a full marathon next Fall. This new hobby inspired me to make other changes as well. I hacked off 10 inches of hair and got my ears pierced while Sean and I were on our little mini vacation. I sat in the little chair at Claire's Boutique and told myself if I can have two epidurals then I can have my ears pierced....I am 32 years old after all.

That's about all that's happening around here.