2012 is ending....

2012 is coming to a close, so is my Journey. I managed to log 501.52 miles, do 2 half marathons, a 10K, and a 5K, have a foot injury that prevented me from doing anything productive for 4 weeks, and get so stressed out during the month of December that I probably should have been institutionalized and never once turned on the treadmill! Let's see what kind of vacation that earns me....HA.

2013 begins tomorrow. It will be a year of Change. I refuse to be complacent any longer. My spiritual life is going to change, my work outs will change, my attention to those around me will change, my eating will change, and my dedication to being the best me (wife, mom, sister, daughter, and friend) God created me to be will change. Look out 2013!

My best motivators!!!

Spring Break, the beginning

 We started out mini vacation with an unusually warm Sunday afternoon. We bought dirt and let the kids go mining. Sounds so funny to say we "bought dirt" but that is what you do to allow your kids to experience mining. We were staying at the Hotel Nashville and this mining location was very near our hotel. We then went to one of our favorite pizza places for dinner. Yummy!!

 In the morning, we started off with a yummy breakfast at the hotel....waffles, cinnamon rolls, fruit, cereal,  juice, milk, coffee.....yes, we were energized and ready!! We started on this 1.25 moderate trail. Before that day, the kids had only been on easy trails or easy/moderate trails....little did we know what we were getting ourselves into!!!

 Some fun science lessons from daddy along the way....

 And then....this appeared before us.

Option 1: turn around, hike back 1 plus miles

Option 2: pick up the kids, run for it, and know that I'm an adult and I shouldn't whine because my feet are wet

We went with Option 2.....only to find out......

 that we had just crossed over onto a .75 mile rugged trail. Did I mention we were at the bottom of the downhill rugged trail? Do you understand what that means? We have to hike UP a .75 RUGGED trail with 2 kids that are getting tired.....

 We made it out alive with our drama king and queen!! Notice we ended at the beginning. Lesson learned. Next time, we start here going DOWNHILL on the rugged trail and end on the 1.25 moderate trail. Sounds like a much better option.

We rewarded the kids with candy from a candy/fudge shop. They opted for some CrAzY sour powdery stuff. I opted for red velvet fudge....from the look on his face, I made a better choice!!!

Spring Break 2012, part 2

The Middle

We went to hang out at Grandma Teri's house. Actually, we sent the kids over on Wednesday night after gymnastics and we went to join them on Thursday night for this super fun campfire. While the kids were gone, Matt and I repainted our bedroom. And, shockingly, 2 weeks later, it still isn't a finished product. I'd post pictures, but I'm not happy with it yet. It is getting there.....slooooowly! I digress, back to the campfire. S'mores are a favorite of mine, so after a dinner out, we roasted marshmallows and had a delicious dessert. I was in charge of the roasting to begin with and they had me using a real stick. I was SO scared that it was going to catch on fire, so they all had a great time making fun of me for a while. Oh well, the yummy dessert was worth it....obviously, look at the smile below! 

 On our way back from our "mini vacation" (I really should have gone in order, I haven't even told you about our first stop) we stopped in Columbus to play at the indoor play area we'd heard so much about and to eat at Scotty's Burger Joint. This is Delaney cutting the "nasty" skin off of her apples. As long as she is going to eat the fruit, I'm all for her "playing" with her food.

 The kids and I did some cute posing. I'm never in the pictures....it was kind of fun!

That body in the middle is Delaney. The kids had a lot of fun in this contraption.

**A special thanks to Matt for his awesome photography skills....2 pictures in one blog post!!!**

Spring Break 2012, part 1

I have realized this post is going to take a few days to complete, but I'll start with the end of the break and work my way backwards. Carson is in a bowling league and the Saturday of spring break he received his shirt. It's a big deal and he was SO proud!! He has become more consistent in his bowling and has made all of us get involved. We went bowling once as a family over spring break and I take them on their days off from school. I think we will spend a lot of our rainy summer days at the bowling alley.
We colored eggs together. Matt is the artistic one in our house, so he was more helpful. I just manned the camera. :)

Delaney and I went to get pedicures for Easter. I mean, come on, you have cute new clothes, you need cute toes too!! The lady was so good with her, put the little flowers on her toe nails and finger nails....spoiled child!!

And, the two most adorable children on Easter morning. They really do love each other, it's not an act. They are usually best friends, but when they aren't, watch out!!!

The longest week on record...

Let me recap my week for those who haven't been here to witness it.

Monday, 9pm, Delaney emerges from her room with a tummyache. I walk in the door at 10:30 after a workout to hear, "It's everywhere." After a lengthy clean up and little sleep, it's Tuesday and I'm at school with Carson doing my lesson plans. I spend a day home with my princess, who pukes again in the car on the way to pick up Carson. So the 24 hours until she can go back to school starts over again. Matt is preparing to go out of town for a conference, so staying home isn't an option for him. Lesson plans done again, this time in the evening so I don't have to go in when I drop Car off and Matt can get to work on time.

Wednesday morning, Delaney sits up in bed, pukes, lays back down. By this point, I'm weary, I won't lie. I know Matt is leaving after work and my throat hurts so bad I can barely swallow. I decide while I'm home, I should take Carson to get the green snot and yucky chest congestion checked out. I don't need her to look at the rash that has taken over his body, I know it is Fifths disease. Everyone at school has had it, he's one of the last in his class to get it. Delaney manages to stay vomit free all day, we go grab Carson from school early and take him to the doctor to find out he has bronchitis. My throat feels a little better, or I seriously would have asked their pediatrician to look at it, she's a friend too. :)

Matt leaves after dinner, we get ready for bed, I announce everyone is going to school tomorrow, puke or not!

Thursday goes without an issue, but my throat is aching again. My parents offer to have dinner with us, I think it's lovely to have adult conversation and I'm thankful they love us enough to not be scared of whatever we all have going on!!

I don't sleep well Thursday night because my throat hurts so bad. I have to leave school early Friday to take Delaney to the eye doctor because her headaches have come back, so there is no time for me to go to the doctor for myself. After the eye doctor, we come home, take care of all the cats, and then go to rent videos, swing through a drive thru for dinner, and come home to eat in front of the tv.

After the movie, Carson informs me he wants to make a leprechaun trap. I wind up in tears in the kitchen floor because I need my husband. He would have been able to figure out how to make this all work, and I just couldn't do it. As I've said before, Carson is the sensitive one, so he realized I was a mess and encouraged me lots. We made an awesome trap....where he caught all of the green candy the leprechaun could find on such short notice. :)

By Saturday morning I just want relief from this aching. However, Carson has bowling. We head to bowling, where he did a great job, then to immediate care where no one acknowledges that I'm standing there. We leave, I'm frustrated. After some whining to my parents, we decide to come home, take care of the cats for the day, and then head to Brown County with them for some fun and distraction. Matt should be home around bed time and I can't do all day alone. I don't feel good and I'm exhausted! I decide to run by the minute clinic at cvs on the way to my parents, full house there too, we leave again.

We have an awesome day at Nashville.....eating, shopping, walking, talking, and getting a surprise call from Matt that he was on his way home 6 hours early! He met us in Nashville. Upon our return home, he sent me, childless, to immediate care to see what was going on....strep. :( Bonus is, I walked away with a prescription and feel tons better today.

What I learned this week: I am so thankful to have the family I have....my parents chipped in anyway they could, my children were SO well behaved, and my husband is my better half!

These are my days....

Okay, I realize the above picture shows that I don't always parent, but isn't that fun?!? His clothes don't match.....or fit.....but look at that face. The kid is having blast enjoying a springlike day in early March. He is all boy (so active and rough and tough), but he is the first one in the house to notice when mom needs a hug (and to deliver it!).

And, for those of you who haven't met this guy on facebook yet, this is our newest addition to the family, Fluffy Gus. He came to join us after his owners (our next door neighbors) were (wife) killed in a car accident and (husband) died from a broken heart. He has adjusted marvelously to our family and is WELL loved by certain members!! He handles that with grace and flops over her arm like a ragdoll and takes it all in. He has a great personality. Unfortunately, we are also still caring for the other 3 cats that they left behind. So, if you live in the area and know of anyone looking for a cat, we have 3 with very different personalities that we'd love to have you meet. We, however, won't be taking in anymore of them....much to Mrs. Gray's disliking as she frequently tries to sneak in the house with Gus!!

Today, I am home with a sick girl, just tiptoeing (is that a word, because it doesn't look right?!?) around the house trying not to wake her up. She is not perking up as fast as I'd like her to, but she has managed to keep liquids down for 5 hours now....big improvement! And, because this is an unexpected day off and the laundry is actually caught up, I am managing to be productive with some fun things.....sewing, blogging, making a menu of dinner for the next 2 weeks (yes, that IS fun!!!).

And, finally, for those of you keeping track at home, I am 25% of the way through Kentucky in my run to Florida. Last night my sister and I went from my house to my parents house. It was a nice journey of almost 4 miles. I will say that next time, maybe we should do it when the sun is out, there were a few dark stretches along the way and we've decided we're kinda getting wimpy in our "old" age.

I suppose I should go put on some clothes that don't look so much like pajamas and start waking sleeping beauty so we can go grab her brother in the car line. That is a HUGE deal for him because they always just go to my classroom after school. He's SO excited to get picked up with his friends and without his sister.

Until next time, if you live near me, enjoy this weather. I've opened up all the windows and am enjoying the breeze and the birds.

Not a Stay-cation!

For those of you following my journey, I made it out of Indiana yesterday morning! I am approximately 3 miles into Kentucky.

I was also paid a huge compliment by my husband when he informed me that he was proud of me. He said he knew how much I love my sleep, so for me to get out of bed while everyone else was snoozing to go run took a lot of dedication. I love that he noticed and said something. I love him!

We had a SUPER week!

You can't let an event like the Superbowl come and go in your city without getting in on the action. We chose to go downtown on Monday evening. We knew we wanted to avoid weekends and decided that we would probably miss a lot of "out of towners" by going early in the week. From reports I've heard from friends, that was an excellent choice. We waited in line to get into the convention center for about 10 minutes, but that is the longest we waited for anything.

Carson kicked this ball 30 times during the course of the night. He enjoyed the NFL Experience a lot!! As he was getting ready to go through the obstacle course/training camp for the 3rd time, Delaney heard an announcement that sounded something like this, "At this time the Colts cheerleaders will be signing autographs on the event stage." Her eyes lit up and she gave me the "please can we go?" look. As you can imagine, we high tailed it over to the event stage, where we were the 9th people in a line that grew to probably 50 by the time it was moving. She was able to get 4 cheerleaders signatures on a poster. She was thrilled!!

And, one more picture of my little kicker. Selfishly, I hope he plays a position where he gets to tackle people....kickers and quarterbacks seem so "pretty boy"-ish. I want my boy to be TOUGH.

My life on the hamster wheel

Ever feel like you do the same think day after day, somehow expecting different results? I'm going to guess every mom is answering a loud "Yes!" I feel like that's the kind of week I've had, same thing every day, same results. Delaney hates to get ready for school, so it's the same fight every morning. I love to sleep, but hate to go to bed, so I'm grumpy every morning. Carson is tired after school, and thus whiny. I won't complain for Matt. :)

However, I managed to have a different result after a few workouts. I felt refreshed instead of ready to fall over. I think I broke through the "I'm working out because I have to" and moved into "I'm working out because I want to." I'd love to see some of those results physically instead of just mentally. I'll get there, I know!!

Update after week 3 is: I've almost made it to Seymour, Indiana.

Death gets in the way....

You've heard people say, "Oh, life just got in the way this week." Unfortunately, death got in the way of our normal life. We received a phone call last Saturday evening informing us that our 72 year old next door neighbor had been tragically killed in a car accident on her way home from a funeral in Seymour. That same accident sent her 74 year old husband (of 51 years) to the ICU at Methodist Hospital in critical condition. Try explaining that to an over-analyzing 7 year old. Our life was turned upside down. We told the kids, cried, and then put them in bed. Carson (typical boy style) fell right to sleep and we didn't hear from him again till morning. Delaney, on the other hand, was still awake at 11p. Shortly after that, we set up a bed on our floor for her where she camped out the rest of the night. We all slept in about 45 minutes stretches, then I'd hear us all moving around, restlessly trying to find a comfortable spot. Occassionally unable to find that comfortable spot and thus huffing and puffing around for a while not wanting to ask if anyone was awake, but hoping someone else would notice and speak. I talked to Delaney a few times during the night, but mostly just, "Are you okay?" "Yes."
The next morning we headed to church, where I finally let the flood gates down and ugly cried for a while. I was stuck in the middle of the row and couldn't figure out how to escape without causing a huge scene, so I tried to hold it in, but that only made it worse. Then, I looked over to see that Matt's eyes weren't exactly dry...then I really lost it!
The next few days were very scary for our neighbor in ICU. He was unresponsive, they ran more tests, couldn't find anything wrong, and decided to do some exploratory surgery to find the issue. Turns out there were internal injuries that weren't showing up on their scans. After those were fixed, his health really started to turn around. Our last update was that he was sitting on the edge of the bed doing exercises and being moved to a normal room soon. Then, he is headed to a rehabilitation center, and finally, to his son's house.
That leaves a dark, empty house next to us. I have a hard time looking out the window. It makes me sad for so many reasons. All the things we never said to them or did for them that we can never change. I guess I'm sad for missed opportunities. I'm sad for him, that after 51 years of marriage he must go this route alone. I'm sad that Delaney still isn't dealing with death well. She hasn't slept an entire night since we told her. Friday night was probably the worst because we took her to the calling. We both felt like it was the right choice. We explained beforehand that her body would be there, but that everything we loved about her was in Heaven. She was such a God honoring Proverbs 31 woman! Phenomenal example for me to follow (and I never told her that). Carson hid behind me the entire time and Delaney just looked like she could burst into tears. She withdrew a lot afterwards, but set up camp in our room again for the night.
Finally, on Saturday she went with me to take care of the cats. We are honored (seriously) to be taking care of their cats for the time being. Those cats were her babies, so I hug them tight!! I never knew cleaning a litterbox could be therapeutic, but it is!! (sorry, I digress, as I'm sure I have a lot, but I'm just trying to get my thoughts out of my head) Delaney went with me to check on the cats. That means we walk all through the house, feed them, love on them, clean the litterbox, accidentally let one out and chase it through the snowy yard in boots with heels to catch him and put him back in so he doesn't freeze. Delaney looked around the house a lot, and that is when she started to open up. The questions came free flowing, some I could answer, and some I couldn't. No one can. I gave her opinions, backed up by facts, and cried some with her. I think it was really a healing process. Who knew cats could heal a heart.
I know that I can't go back and do all the things I never did, but somehow, bringing in the mail and snuggling with a cat makes me feel like I'm doing something. I know that their family may never know how much I needed this opportunity, but it has really helped me to grieve.
Pray for our neighbor, that his emotional wounds can heal as quickly as his physical wounds. He knows that one day he will spend eternity with his love, but he is questioning why he didn't get to go with her this time. I think, after 51 years of marriage, I'd question that too.

I'm on my way....

Well folks (I write as if someone other than my sister is reading this....HA), I have made it past mile marker 84 on this endeavor. That is well past Franklin, but not quite to the outlet mall. I feel as if I should include some photos of myself with the nasty hair band half pony tail, sweaty face, and workout clothes. Instead, I'll save you all the visual and just let you read about my progress.

Journey....

In 2011, my sister had a word for the year. I decided to borrow this idea for 2012.

My word is: JOURNEY.

"A journey may be long or short, but it must start at the very spot one finds oneself." Jim Stovall

My first journey began tonight.

I am a "list maker" that desperately needs to mark off items that are finished. Matt says I write "make a list" at the top of the list just so I can cross something off right away. Maybe so, but nonetheless, that's how I function and feel success.

My first, and probably hardest (at least physically speaking), journey for 2012 is to walk to Florida. WHAT?!? Has she lost her mind?!? No, my goal for 2012 is to keep track of my miles walked/ran (so far I am at 2.20). My goal is to walk my family to Florida for 2013. Matt has agreed that we can go to whatever beach I walk to. If I make it 686.4 miles, then we will find ourselves in Jacksonsville, Florida next year. However, I'd rather go farther south....let's say St Petersburg. It's only 840.5 miles (measured as the crow flies, as that is definitely how I run!!).

I promise to update you on my JOURNEY and share more journeys with you.