A Lack of Appreciation

My oldest daughter is five. She is incredibly smart and mature for her age, but she's five. Today I picked her up late from school (for reasons that could not really be helped). On the way from school to church, she proceeded to tell me that the gift we are planning to give her teachers (which I haven't had time to finish yet because I work a full-time job outside of the home) is not going to be enough. Someone else in her class has been giving the teachers presents every day and not just her teachers, but the other teachers she is with for part of the day too. I was told that I needed to do more so we can appreciate her teachers as much as the other little girl does. I tried not to lose it with her and tried to explain that some mothers have more time than other mothers and some families have more money to spend than other families. That we have to buy gifts for her teachers and Addisyn's teachers and that we just can't spend that kind of money. I thought that was the end of that.

Then, when I was putting her to bed an hour late (we had to stop at Walmart and pick up invitations for her graduation party with some friends from school, I let her watch tv while I got sister ready for bed and asleep, and then I let her watch an EXTRA tv show while I got the dishes washed), she got upset with me that I wouldn't read her a story. I told her that she had gotten to stay up late already and there wasn't time for a story tonight. She told me that I'm not as good at putting her to bed as Daddy is and that if I did it like Daddy, she would get to have a story. Then she jumped back on the subject of our teacher presents not being good enough.


I know I'm taking it personally, and I know she is just five, but it made me wonder how many times I treated my mother like dirt because she wasn't doing something I wanted her to do. I know I did it. Several times. Especially when I was a teenager.

My mother worked hard all day everyday. She worked a full-time job outside the home, kept our house clean, our tummies full, took us all over the county for tap, jazz, ballet, gymnastics, and cheerleader practice when we were younger and then gymnastics, cheerleading, basketball, and softball when I was older. She threw the best birthday parties ever, made sure we had cute clothes to wear, awesome presents to give, and made sure our homework was done. She would get up early to braid my hair for softball games (and two of my best friends), take me to buy new books when I finished the one I was reading, and spent all her weekends doing things my sister and I wanted to do.

I honestly do not recall a single time past the age of 8ish where my mother did what she wanted to do regardless of what our plans were. She coached my little league cheer team. She took us shopping. She used her lunch hour late so she could be at all our pep rallies. She did without so that we could fit in.

I was a tad bit self-absorbed as a teenager. I was only interested in what I wanted to do and stayed locked in my room if I was at home. I ignored my mother when she wanted to talk. I expected her to feed me, wash my clothes (and NASTY softball uniforms), and bring me everything I forgot to school. Everybody loved my mom. They called her Martha. I knew how awesome my mom was but that never stopped me from rolling my eyes or having an attitude.

Most of my actions were typical teenage actions--things to be expected. But I was wrong. I should have thanked her. I should have not blown her off when she wanted to talk to me about my dates or what my friends were going through.

When I was a senior, I was accepted into two colleges and one of those schools awarded me a full scholarship renewable for four years. I had a big decision to make and I don't know if my mom realizes it or not, but she is the reason I chose to go to Auburn (where I did not have a scholarship). One night we were talking, or rather, she was trying to talk to me while I was talking to multiple friends on AOL, and she asked me what I was going to do. I told her I'd probably just go to the school that was free and she looked at me and said that she always wanted to go to Auburn. She went instead to the school that was closer and cost less (and I think she had a scholarship too). Her plan was to transfer to Auburn, but she never did, and if that was my plan, I probably never would either. She said that if it was my dream to go there, I should go--don't worry about the money, they would find a way.

I listened to her and went to Auburn. That decision changed the course of my life.

And when I went to Auburn, she stocked my apartment and made it the cutest apartment around. She bought me all the things I liked about home so I'd feel comfortable. When finals came, she took a few days off work and came to stay with me. She did my laundry and cooked for me and cleaned my apartment so that I could just worry about studying.

That first year of college, I realized how awesome my momma really was.

And even now, years later, she is still amazing, and everyone still knows it. Even Ansleigh knows it. I'm ok with not being as good as Lolli, because Lolli's shoes are hard to fill.

Momma, I am so sorry for all those times I treated you terribly. You are honest-to-goodness the world's best mother. I hope, you didn't take it personally, but I fear that you did. Just know that all my friends have always appreciated you and even though it took me a while to catch on, I know it now and my girls know it too.

You are awesome and I am blessed.

I love you.

My Nana

Yesterday, my Nana died.

I don't know how old she was, but she was old and her body had given out on her.

When I think about who she was, I can't help but to smile. She was a feisty old lady with a heart of gold. She was very opinionated and she liked to talk a lot (see...it is genetic!).

During football season, she'd get so worked up about Auburn football that on Saturday nights, she wouldn't be able to sleep at all.

Up until she was no longer able, every Wednesday she did a "tape" ministry with her church. I never had any idea what this was except that it had something to do with cassette tapes and visiting shut-ins. She never missed it.

She kept an immaculately clean house. No finger prints on the fridge and no vacuum marks in the carpet. She would take a broom and sweep the carpet after she vacuumed so there weren't any marks in the carpet. Once I asked her, "Nana, why would you do that? How is anybody supposed to know you vacuumed if you can't see the vacuum lines?" and she told me that she lived by herself and she didn't care if anybody knew that she had vacuumed.

She was known all over the community for her beautiful yard with the white picket fence. She had beautiful azalea bushes and incredible dogwood trees. We always took our Easter pictures at her house in her front yard and every year, she'd have my dad and my uncle go hide a huge garbage bag full of eggs so that the four of us grandkids could go hunt them.

She was also known as the wart lady. She had magical voodoo powers (well that's what I called it) that could remove warts. She would take a potato, cut it in half, rub the potato all over your warts, and then plant it in her garden. In a couple of weeks, the warts would be gone. My momma took half my cheerleading team over to her house once so she could work her magic on all my friends.

She was very strong in her faith and every day she read her Sunday School lesson out of a little book. She kept it right beside her monthly copy of Southern Living.

She collected tea pots and bird houses.

She also had a big, breakable rooster in her dining room. I asked her once why she had a big ol' chicken in her dining room and she told me it wasn't a chicken, it was a rooster, and she thought it was pretty.

She told stories of my Papa Louis and stories of when she worked at Flowers Bakery.

She wore sweat suits and white Keds during the winter, and seersucker pants outfits during the summer. To church, she always wore a suit, a beautiful necklace, and a butterfly broach. She has two display frames of them in her room. I was always fascinated by her butterflies. I wore one pinned inside my wedding gown as my something borrowed, although, I'm pretty sure I never gave it back.

She was stubborn and hard-headed. She was kind and she was loving.

She always had candy and enjoyed having visitors.

She loved her brothers and sisters and talked to them often.

She makes the best chicken-n-dressing you'll ever have.

She never missed an occasion to give a card to someone. When Ansleigh was a baby (a mere two months old) she sent her a Valentine's card with a $5 bill in it and told me to buy that baby some chocolate.

She forced me to learn how to make macaroni and cheese when I was fourteen or fifteen because I needed to learn to do something for myself (she was right, I did need to learn).

She was a wonderful grandmother. She helped take care of us when we were sick, called us, kept the family together, and remembered us, even when we were too busy to remember her.

I'm sure she is much like every other grandmother in the world, except to me, she is different. She's my Nana. I am so thankful that she is not suffering anymore, but I will miss her dearly. Life will not be the same without her, but we are all better people for having known her.

13.1--I did it!

This weekend I completed my first half marathon.

You may remember almost a year ago, I posted that I was determined to do it as part of my weight loss goal.

Side note: I haven't posted in a while about where I am now with my goal to lose the weight. Addisyn will be one in a few weeks and I am at the goal weight I set for myself (137 pounds). I've been there since October-ish. I gained some weight over Thanksgiving an Christmas (about 8 pounds) but I'm back down. I do have what I have always called an unrealistic goal weight and I'm about 10 pounds shy of that. Maybe I can get there this summer when I have more time.

Training:
I did great all summer training. I started with the Couch to 5K app and loved it. Once I completed that, I downloaded a half marathon training app made by the same makers and used that. Once school got back into swing, my running became less frequent, and eventually, I was only doing my long runs because something was always coming up during the short runs where I couldn't do them. Some were legitimate reasons and some were just excuses. In January, I did The Color Run in Orlando. While I was running, my knee really started bothering me. I stayed off it a week and then did 10 miles. After that, I was miserable. I finally got it checked out and I have I.T. Band Syndrome. Basically what that means is that my I.T. band is too tight and it creates friction in my knee when I run, which causes irritation, which feels like someone is jabbing a knife in my knee and twisting every step I take. Since then I have stayed off of it a lot and just done some short runs here and there, mostly on the treadmill where I thought there would be less impact.

I'm pretty sure I caused the knee problem myself by not training accurately. Now, I just need to do the stretches and exercises needed to help it get better and then, I'm going to train correctly.


The Trip:
We went over to Disney on Saturday morning. The Health & Fitness Expo was at the Coronado Springs Resort. You couldn't park there and had to park at Downtown Disney and take a bus. Rather than drag the kids over there, my awesome hubby entertained them at Downtown Disney while I went over to the expo. I expected long lines but by the time I got there, it wasn't bad at all. There were tons of people there but I walked right up and got my race number and my race shirt. I waited a long time (close to an hour maybe) in line to go through the official runDisney store. I also scored my hunny a pair of limited edition runDisney New Balances (last pair in his size!) but was sad they didn't have my size. After the expo we went over to Hollywood Studios for the day to catch the newest version of the Disney Junior show. I tried not to walk too much (a mere five miles, which is nothing compared to what we usually do) and went back and checked in to the hotel (All Star Sports). They got us a preferred room (close to the lobby and on the bottom floor) so I'd be close to the bus pick up.

My sweet hubby and kids chased me all over during the race, and afterward, we checked out of the hotel and went to Magic Kingdom for the day where we ended up walking about 10 miles (on top of the 13.1 that I did yesterday morning). Needless to say, I'm pretty sore and tired today.

Costume:
I saw a picture of a sleeping beauty running costume on Etsy and it was ridiculously expensive but it didn't look that hard to make. I had the running skirt and I had the tank top already so my amazing mother took what I had and made it into an even better one than the one I saw. She is awesome! :) Thanks, Mommy!

Do you have to wear a costume? No, not at all. Did a lot of people have them on? I'd be willing to say that most people had some kind of costume on, even if it was just Minnie ears. Even a lot of the thousand or so guys that ran had costumes on. :) They were good sports!

The Race:
I barely slept the night before (which almost always happens to me). I woke up at 2:30 and got up at 2:45. I got on the bus around 3:00 where I started sipping a gatorade, ate half a banana, and took some tylenol (for the knee). I got to Epcot and the runner's area around 3:30 am. I took pictures with Princess Jasmine and Princess Ariel and then stood around until my corral was called to go line up.

I had a few friends running, but none running with me. It would have been better and a little easier if I'd had someone with me, but it was still a blast! There were 26,000 other runners there!

Once they call your corral (I was next-to-last!), you walk about 20 minutes away through the secret hidden spots of Disney to line up. I stood in my corral for a small eternity. I was worried because my feet were already hurting a little from the day before. At 6:17, my corral got to start. I was somewhere around two miles when the winner of the race passed us on her way back. She finished in 1:17!

I stuck to what I had  trained to do which was run 4 minutes, walk 1. I could have done more but I was really worried about my knee. My plan was one of those, "Slow and steady finishes the race" sort of things. I took some spray Icy Hot with me and continually hosed myself down as aches and pains popped up. My knee did eventually start bothering me around mile 7 but that was much better than I expected.

 

I started seeing characters around the 3 mile mark. The first ones I saw were all the princes (even Mulan's!) and Captain Jack Sparrow with a big pirate ship. I didn't stop because the lines were about 30 people deep and I wanted to get a good jump on the sweepers (the people who will pick you up if you are behind pace). We got to Magic Kingdom around mile 5 or so and as we were coming through the parking lot I saw my sweet husband there with my two little girls. Ansleigh wanted them to both have on Sleeping Beauty because that is what I was dressed like. Ansleigh was holding up a sign she'd made that said "Go Mommy!" and had princess stickers all over it. It was just what I needed to remind me that I was not alone.

 

Running through Magic Kingdom is amazing. Seriously amazing.  Gaston was out, Belle was out, and Prince Mickey and Princess Minnie were there too. The castle creates a HUGE bottle neck and it was impossible to run or even walk fast until you were well out of the castle.

From there, I just kept chugging along. Disney has people set up all along the way with people cheering you on, music blasting, medical tents (with ice, tylenol, and biofreeze), lots of water and powerade, and they make it easy to keep going. I passed Villian characters, Mulan, and a ton of other characters (and photo op stops) but I never stopped. Especially on the back half of the run because I was hurting and I was afraid if I stopped, I'd never start back or I'd lose what little momentum I had.

My husband was awesome. He got up early, got the kids dressed, and chased me around. He was watching my gps location from his phone and when I started slowing down some, he'd send me the sweetest text messages checking on me, asking how I was doing, motivating me, and once, he even texted me a picture of the finish line telling me I could do it! Each time I got a text from him, it was the exact moment I needed it. He will never know how much that meant to me.

I never looked at my runkeeper app with my pace. I knew I couldn't set a time goal for myself because my knee was so unpredictable. I just wanted to finish. Every book or article you read about running distance running tells you that your first race, your only goal should be to finish and have fun that that is what I did. My split times sucked (I checked them this morning) and I averaged a 13 minute mile. Am I happy with that? No, but I did what I needed to do to be able to finish. My time wasn't good (3:11) but I finished. A year ago, I thought I was setting an impossible goal and I did it. 13 miles is a LONG way and a lot of people never have the courage to try. I will not diminish my accomplishment because my time wasn't good or because I was slow or because I walked some. Of the 26,000 something people that ran, only 21,000 finished and I was 14,000 something in overall finish so I was still faster than 7,000 people! :)

The race was a blast and a blur. I told my husband that it was the shortest, longest three hours of my life. It seems like it went by so quickly and it is all kind of a blur, but in the moment it felt like an eternity. I honestly thought I'd never get to the finish line. When I did, I choked up a bit. It seems silly that I'd cry at the finish line, but I couldn't believe I had done it. Did I do it well? No, but I did it.

 

The Future:
Do I plan on doing another half marathon? Crap, yes! It was fun and now, I want to be better. I am going to slow down a bit and let me knee stop hating me. I'm going to do a couple of 5k's. Then, I'm going to train correctly over the summer and fall. Hubby and I are going to do the Disney Wine & Dine half marathon in November. He has started training too :) and wants to do the Disney Marathon and eventually the Goofy Challenge. I also want to do the Coast-to-Coast challenge. I want to run the Tinkerbell Half at Disneyland and then the Princess Half (again) at Disney World. I doubt I can come up with enough money to do both next year. I also would like to do the Princess Half with a friend that I've trained with and someone that we can stay together the whole time because honestly, that was the hardest part--not having someone beside to you talk to and cheer you on and share the experience with you.

Anyone want to join me in the Coast-to-Coast challenge? I promise I can run a little faster that what I did! :)

My Heart

I started this blog as a place to write about the things that were on/in my heart, thus the title of Mommy Friday's Heart. Well, lately I've had a couple of things on my heart and in the next few posts I'm going to share them with you, but today I want to write about the first thing that has been on my heart lately: orphans.

James 1:27 says that, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Jesus says in Matthew 25: 40, "The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’"

If orphans aren't the least of these, then I don't know who is. I don't think all of us are called to the adoption of orphans, but it is clear that God wants us to love orphans and help them in any way that we can.

I do not feel the call of adoption and I don't have a ton of money laying around to donate to orphans so what can I do? Well, I have this little blog here that has about 200 readers (an astonishing amount to me but not that many compared to other blogs) that can read what I write about orphans. I can show my readers ways they can help.

We have several friends who either recently adopted or are currently in the adoption process and it can be tedious and frustrating and at times, very heartbreaking. I do not want to diminish anyone's adoption process and we certainly have tried to help out as we could, but right now, we have very dear friends who have recently been called by God to adopt a little girl out of Ethiopia and her name will be Josie.

The costs of adoption, especially international adoption, are astronomical and our friends cannot even begin to really get started until they've raised about $6000.

I am not asking you to donate, but I am asking you to go to their blog and follow along with them on their journey. If nothing else, maybe you can see what it like to go through this process. They have a Facebook page that you can "like" and get updates that way too.

Right now, they have two things going on. They are selling tshirts, which are incredibly adorable, and the only reason why I haven't purchased one yet is because I can't decide which one I want more. They also have a giveaway going on.

The basics of this giveaway is that you donate money and based on the amount you donate, you get a certain number of entries, and these entries give you chance to win an American Girl doll of YOUR CHOICE!!!! That's right, you get to choose. Even a donation of a mere $10 can get you entered. You don't have a little girl to give a doll to? Donate it to some needy child. Your little girl isn't old enough for one? Put it up for later when she is old enough. I promise you that you can find someone to give this doll to, all while helping bring Josie home to the family God has called her to.

To read their story from the beginning, go to: http://findingourjosie.blogspot.com/

To check out the awesome shirts, go to: http://www.adoptionbug.com/findingourjosie/

To get in on the American Girl doll action, go to: http://findingourjosie.blogspot.com/2012/10/fundraiser-announcement-american-girl.html

An Update of Sorts

It has been a while since I posted. Do I start all my blog posts that way? I feel like I do. Anyway...

What have I been up to lately? A lot.

Today I gave a grammar mini-lesson on how "a lot" is not one word. Actually, I do that at least once a week. If these kids don't learn ANY thing else, they will leave my room knowing that a lot is not one word, which is more than I can say for a lot of people. :)

Right now I'm looking at a pile of 9th grade essays that need to be graded. Oh the joys of being an English teacher.

Last week my great aunt passed away. The week before that she was perfectly delightful. She went in for a regular stress test, had an allergic reaction and then she went 12 minutes without oxygen. The next day she was declared brain dead and they took her off the machines. Three days later she went to be with Jesus.

The day after the machines were turned off, my grandmother was found unconscious on her bathroom floor bleeding. She had an upper GI bleed and has been hospitalized since then. Yesterday she was finally moved to a physical therapy facility.

In the midst of all that, I have felt God's pull to apply to grad school. I would like to get my masters degree in Educational Technology, which is really just a fancy term for a Media Specialist/School Librarian. I can see God opening several doors for me so I am following his lead. I have finished my application and just have a few things left to tie up loose ends with that process. I feel like a high school senior all over again. I'm so nervous!

I've been attending a mom's Bible study on Wednesday nights and that has been such a breath of fresh air.

In other news, we are traveling up to Alabama the first weekend in November to attend Anthony's cousin's wedding. The second weekend in November I will be running a 5K at Animal Kingdom. The third weekend in November we are attending the Auburn vs. Alabama A & M game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This will be the first time we've been back to Auburn since Ansleigh was about 4 months old. We are spending the week of Thanksgiving in Alabama and then heading back to good old hot Florida to wrap up the semester, celebrate Ansleigh's 5th birthday (FIVE!?!?!?! Already???? How did that happen?), and begin our many Christmas celebrations.

I've been figuring out what the girls are going to be for Halloween. Halloween is expensive when you need TWO costumes. Addisyn is going to be Rapunzel (Ansleigh picked it out for her) and who knows what Ansleigh will be but it will be some princess that she already has the costume for. 

I've also been figuring out what the girls are getting for Christmas from Santa. I always buy the Santa presents in October, and everyone else's Christmas presents in November, and then we just have to pay for Ansleigh's birthday and all our holiday travel costs in December. I do this so we aren't spending so much money all at one time. Addisyn's is getting a convertible car seat and a few toys. Ansleigh will be getting a bunk bed for her Carly doll and her McKenna doll (she's getting that one from Lolli & PopPop) plus a few other things she wants.

In the middle of writing this blog, I've stopped twice to rock a fussy baby who got her shots today. She had her 6 month check up and I left work early to take her to the doctor and then we had a little Mommy & Addi time.

Some days, I'm just exhausted. Most days I'm just exhausted. I get tired of doing laundry and washing bottles and grading papers, but at the end of the day, I love my life, and more importantly, I love my kids and I love my husband. And that, my friends, is what it is all about.

Flattery Will Get You Everywhere...Or The Dean's Office

I have one class of freshmen, and 4 classes of SENIORS this year. I cannot even begin to describe how much I love them. My seniors brighten my day and crack me up all day long. They are awesome. Several of them I taught when they were in tenth grade so that might be why I feel a little more connected.

Last year I was super pregnant all year long.

This year I've come back to compliments galore.

"Mrs. Friday, you look great!"
"Mrs. Friday, you've lost a lot of weight!"
"Mrs. Friday, you're so skinny!"
"Mrs. Friday, there is no way you've had TWO kids!"

I've also gotten a lot of comments from my 18-year-old boys.

"Mrs. Friday, you look NIIIIIIICE today!"
"Mrs. Friday, I'm legal now, you know?"
"Mrs. Friday, you can't come in the classroom. You look too pretty today. We won't learn anything."
"Mrs. Friday, those eyes, you can't look at me with those eyes."
"Mrs. Friday, you can't get glasses. Angels don't need glasses."

These kids are harmless and they say ridiculous things to me (such as suggesting I should quit teaching and be a Victoria's Secret model) mostly just to get a rise out of me, and partially because they have no filters on their mouths and no understanding of what is appropriate and inappropriate.

I appreciate a kid telling me how nice I look or how thin I am just like the next girl, but I'm working on teaching these young gentlemen that being married means something, and if/when they go into the work field, they can't treat their bosses this way. They are reminding me to be VERY cautious in how I dress, not bending over, where I position myself when I'm helping a student, etc.

And just to be clear, I'm not the only teacher that gets hit on. Pretty much if you teach and aren't 85 years old, you'll get hit on. I am not writing this to let people know how hot kids think I am or how popular I am at school. I realize I am not the only one that this happens to. My point is, these kids have really made me feel good about myself and when they say this stuff to me, I can't help but laugh at them because they are so funny when they say it.

I've decided to keep a log of all the insane things they say to me so that one day when I'm fat, and old, and ugly, I can read it and remember all these things and laugh.

Tell It Like It Is...

I'm a tell-it-like-it-is kind of a girl so here is what's up with me:

I have found it harder to keep up with all my workouts and running since I've gone back to work.

I completely stopped the 30 day shred about a week before I went back to work because I found that running and doing that was putting too much stress on my body (well maybe not too much, but a LOT more than I could handle at the time and I was starting to get injured).

I've still been running. I completed the Couch to 5K training and just ran to run for a couple of weeks. I find it difficult to do that--to just run without anyone telling me what to do. Then I started the Couch to 13.1 training program. I'm a week into it, but instead of running 3 days a week and being done, it has me (well I'm supposed to be) running one day, cross training one day, running one day, cross training one day for all seven days a week. Yikes!

Fitting in the time for running is harder now that I work all day outside of the home. Life is back, full-swing, and it seems like there is something every night of the week. I can't run (outside) on Mondays because Ansleigh has dance class on Monday nights and homework EVERY NIGHT (the kid is in pre-kindergarten and has homework EVERY night!) and dinner and bath. I can't run (outside) Tuesday nights my husband plays church league softball unless it is pouring rain. If it is raining that much, I can't run outside and if he's gone, I have both kids to feed, bath, etc. and don't forget the homework. Wednesday nights is church dinner, kids choir, and my mom's bible study. When I get home with the girls (Hubs has praise team and choir practice), we still have to do homework, bath, and tiny tot needs her bottle. Thursdays I can run outside. We actually have nothing those days. Fridays I could run outside too but by then, I'm just so dang tired.

My goal has been to run Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday mornings. I usually have to do Tuesday nights on the treadmill my mom gave me (Thanks, Mom!!!). Thursdays and Saturdays I like to run outside, but the weather often dictates if it is outdoors or on the screened-in porch on the treadmill.

I like to run outside, but I've recently run into some interesting "experiences" that have made me question running near my home. When I run outside I'm almost always spotted by one of my students (they are seniors who drive and where we live is zoned for the school I teach at). Two weeks ago, I had a guy (not a student!) literally hanging out his truck window whistling at me, while another guy raced by on a bike and said, "I bet you get that all the time." Just a few days ago, I had a guy ride alongside of me for half a mile asking me strange questions like how often I jog and can he jog with me.

Yes, my husband could run with me, but that implies that he wants to go run three days a week. If he did, we'd have to take both of the kids with us, just so I could be safe while I'm running. Yes, I could run with a friend, but I don't have many friends who live in my area of town who would want to run with me and could run on my schedule. Where does that leave me? I don't know.

On the other side, I have found that it is easier to control what I eat when I'm working all day and don't have time to think about how hungry I am. Plus, even if I do get hungry, I don't have anything to eat there aside from what I bring with me from home. I bring a morning snack (granola bar) and my lunch (sandwich and chocolate pudding). You can't eat what you don't have. :) I have eaten a little too much pasta lately on the weekends and then I've had to work it off.

I'm still losing weight, but it is slower than when I could kill myself this summer. I find myself longing for the summer days of waiting for my husband to get home so I could fly out the door running. In my mind, I thought that since I'm not coaching anymore, I'd be able to come home and work out or run before the kids came home but that hasn't happened one single time since I went back to work. I've found that I stay later at work trying to get papers graded and things prepared for the next day, working hard not to get behind. When I do get home, it is time to start dinner, or go pick up the kids and then start dinner. Or go pick up the kids and get to ballet or church.

I keep telling myself that I'm going to start getting up at 5:15 (YIKES!) in the morning to run once the time changes and it is daylight then. I'm not a morning person and I LOVE to sleep so we'll see if that actually happens. Plus, I could still get abducted at 5:30 in the morning just like I can at 7:30 at night.

I have the Mickey's Jingle Run (or whatever it is called) November 10th coming up and I am going to do the Color Run in December. February is the Princess 1/2 Marathon. I am committed. I haven't registered yet because it costs money, lots of money, but I will as soon as I get a few more pay checks.

Anyone want to run with me? Anyone have any tips on how to stay safe running alone? Anyone have any motivating thoughts/advice for me?