This week has been spent mostly getting the new kitten settled within the home and getting the animals to be able to coexist in the same room without stress. Although Minnie Cat isn't BFFs with the kitten, she tolerates her fine and the household is calm.
Monday was uneventful, which was nice. Tuesday morning I took the boys to grandma's for a day swimming with their cousins. Then I took myself out for lunch and relaxed for the afternoon. While I was teaching I got a text from Grandma asking if the boys could spend the night which was fine.
Wednesday, Grandma brought Noah home and took Aaron with her and the twins to the children's museum. I took Noah to his first day of volunteering, which was interesting. You could tell he was nervous by the way he hunched and kept his fingers in his pockets but I knew he'd be fine. Things got a little more stressful when he got his teen crew tee shirt and it was (in his opinion) too big so he flat out refused to wear it. I took it home and shrunk it for Thursday's events. Wednesday night was also the first night we let the kitten sleep in Noah's room, which went well so we will continue to go with it.
Thursday afternoon, Noah once again is at the library volunteering, this time running a carnival game as a library event for young children. And yes, he IS wearing his teen crew shirt.
The house is quite clean, given that we have created a new system for chores getting done, and a points based behavior chart that is continually being revised as needed. Aaron is having a few issues, but wow has he improved since we put this new system in place.
As for me, I have spent some time this week finishing the two shutterfly books from 2012, got one good and two bad runs in, and have started working on my niece's afghan for her birthday (or Christmas if I don't finish it).
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Sunday, June 8, 2014
First Weekend of Summer Vacay: New Family and New Skill
School got out on Thursday last week. For the first time ever it was a half day, which left us an afternoon to hang out.
While net surfing Thursday night, I found an ad that changed the course of our summer. Noah has been begging for a kitten forever and we finally figured it was time to let him have one for his birthday in July. We had been panicking about how to buy him a birthday present this summer, given that any extra we have is going toward Steve's trip to Vegas and I have no income, despite applying for probably 50 jobs for the summer.
So when I saw an ad from the Humane Society offering a "Name Your Own Price" for kittens, I knew what our Friday morning adventure would be. I surprised the boys and took them to the Humane Society right when they opened.. After awhile of meeting a kitten, Noah had picked out his new best friend, named her Misty, and we were on our way home. Most of the rest of the weekend was spent figuring out how we were going to do with three pets in our house ( I'm still not thrilled, but it's too late now).
Saturday Steve was gone for a barbershop event and after a MAJOR car clean out, I took Aaron over to the funeral home parking lot so he could share his new skill. He had become a rip stick master over the past three days. He is proud, confident, and brave when riding that thing, which are not his usual character traits so it has been a huge blessing to watch him.. I will put a picture on here later after downloading them, just so I have it in the future when I look back.
Sunday Steve was still gone in the morning so we just hung out but also managed to get the two cats to a point where they can be in the same room without stressing too much and we have confidence now that this household will at some point run smoothly, even with WAY too many animals in the home. I also took Noah out to practice bike riding to the library, where he will be volunteering two hours a week this summer.
Sunday ended with a cookout, complete with backyard bonfire and Noah getting a chance to burn his notes from his sixth grade science class.
It;'s safe to say that it looks like it's gong to be a good summer.
While net surfing Thursday night, I found an ad that changed the course of our summer. Noah has been begging for a kitten forever and we finally figured it was time to let him have one for his birthday in July. We had been panicking about how to buy him a birthday present this summer, given that any extra we have is going toward Steve's trip to Vegas and I have no income, despite applying for probably 50 jobs for the summer.
So when I saw an ad from the Humane Society offering a "Name Your Own Price" for kittens, I knew what our Friday morning adventure would be. I surprised the boys and took them to the Humane Society right when they opened.. After awhile of meeting a kitten, Noah had picked out his new best friend, named her Misty, and we were on our way home. Most of the rest of the weekend was spent figuring out how we were going to do with three pets in our house ( I'm still not thrilled, but it's too late now).
Saturday Steve was gone for a barbershop event and after a MAJOR car clean out, I took Aaron over to the funeral home parking lot so he could share his new skill. He had become a rip stick master over the past three days. He is proud, confident, and brave when riding that thing, which are not his usual character traits so it has been a huge blessing to watch him.. I will put a picture on here later after downloading them, just so I have it in the future when I look back.
Sunday Steve was still gone in the morning so we just hung out but also managed to get the two cats to a point where they can be in the same room without stressing too much and we have confidence now that this household will at some point run smoothly, even with WAY too many animals in the home. I also took Noah out to practice bike riding to the library, where he will be volunteering two hours a week this summer.
Sunday ended with a cookout, complete with backyard bonfire and Noah getting a chance to burn his notes from his sixth grade science class.
It;'s safe to say that it looks like it's gong to be a good summer.
Summer's Here Again
Here we go. Another summer vacation is here. Noah just finished 6th grade and Aaron just finished 4th. My blogging life began when Noah was in KINDERGARTEN. Crazy, right?
I tried hard last summer to try to document our summer adventures, given that we have more down time and more interesting things have potential to occur. And as some things change, some things NEVER do.
What hasn't changed, we have yet ANOTHER summer with no money, given that a nine month school year paycheck leaves no income in the summer. Oh yes, we tried very hard to save this year for the summer. However, it seemed that every time we saved a small chunk, something happened, such as car repairs, clothes kids needed, me going back to school and needed tuition, etc. We managed to save enough to purchase a gift card for $100 of food each week through the middle of August. We may not go on many adventures, but at least we will eat.
I will attempt to do a school year recap for the boys later this week. But looking ahead to the summer, we do have a few momentous occasions coming up. Steve's big trip to Vegas with Majestyx, my attempt (still not sure if it will happen) at a first 10K in Chicago, and the boys both have some new experiences ahead of them as well.
I enjoyed going back to glance at my attempts to recount our summer adventures last summer, even though they petered out. I will try to keep it through this whole summer. Some things that were good to read was the accounts of Aaron's behavior and gives me a better idea of how to approach his issues this summer.
Summer Vacation 2014, here we go...
I tried hard last summer to try to document our summer adventures, given that we have more down time and more interesting things have potential to occur. And as some things change, some things NEVER do.
What hasn't changed, we have yet ANOTHER summer with no money, given that a nine month school year paycheck leaves no income in the summer. Oh yes, we tried very hard to save this year for the summer. However, it seemed that every time we saved a small chunk, something happened, such as car repairs, clothes kids needed, me going back to school and needed tuition, etc. We managed to save enough to purchase a gift card for $100 of food each week through the middle of August. We may not go on many adventures, but at least we will eat.
I will attempt to do a school year recap for the boys later this week. But looking ahead to the summer, we do have a few momentous occasions coming up. Steve's big trip to Vegas with Majestyx, my attempt (still not sure if it will happen) at a first 10K in Chicago, and the boys both have some new experiences ahead of them as well.
I enjoyed going back to glance at my attempts to recount our summer adventures last summer, even though they petered out. I will try to keep it through this whole summer. Some things that were good to read was the accounts of Aaron's behavior and gives me a better idea of how to approach his issues this summer.
Summer Vacation 2014, here we go...
Sunday, April 6, 2014
Spring Break 2014
So four months since my last post. I guess it's safe to say my blogging days are pretty much a thing of the past. But I still think it is nice to post some memories for the future.
Spring Break so far has been pretty nice. I had a rough last week and I definitely needed a break from my class and definitely teaching "partner". Major burnout had set in.
Here is a recap of the Break so far...
Friday Day One
Rainy and cold. I was determined to sleep in until noon. However, 11 year old Noah called up to my bedroom at about 9:15 asking, "Mom, are you coming down anytime soon?" When I asked him why he responded that he had made breakfast and it was getting cold. Sure enough, I cam e downstairs and he had the table set for four (even though Steve was at work( and at my place was a cold piece of toast with peanut butter on it and a glass of orange juice. It was so sweet of him that I ate that toast as if it were the best prize I'd ever received. Later that day, I drove the boys to M89 theater and we saw the movie Mr. Peabody. It was very funny. When we got home, I got a very cold and windy 3 mile run in.
Saturday Day Two
We were invited to a breakfast play date with the Wests and Roossiens by Cyndee West. We stayed until around noon when we came home and putzed around the house the rest of the day. A pretty nice relaxing day though.
Sunday Day Three
Beautiful sunny day. After church we stayed outside most of the day. I got a 4.2 mile run in and lots of yard work, Aaron's bike broke so we will have to figure that out before the summer gets underway.
Headed off to Detroit for a quick overnight adventure tomorrow.
Spring Break so far has been pretty nice. I had a rough last week and I definitely needed a break from my class and definitely teaching "partner". Major burnout had set in.
Here is a recap of the Break so far...
Friday Day One
Rainy and cold. I was determined to sleep in until noon. However, 11 year old Noah called up to my bedroom at about 9:15 asking, "Mom, are you coming down anytime soon?" When I asked him why he responded that he had made breakfast and it was getting cold. Sure enough, I cam e downstairs and he had the table set for four (even though Steve was at work( and at my place was a cold piece of toast with peanut butter on it and a glass of orange juice. It was so sweet of him that I ate that toast as if it were the best prize I'd ever received. Later that day, I drove the boys to M89 theater and we saw the movie Mr. Peabody. It was very funny. When we got home, I got a very cold and windy 3 mile run in.
Saturday Day Two
We were invited to a breakfast play date with the Wests and Roossiens by Cyndee West. We stayed until around noon when we came home and putzed around the house the rest of the day. A pretty nice relaxing day though.
Sunday Day Three
Beautiful sunny day. After church we stayed outside most of the day. I got a 4.2 mile run in and lots of yard work, Aaron's bike broke so we will have to figure that out before the summer gets underway.
Headed off to Detroit for a quick overnight adventure tomorrow.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Thursday Thirteen: 2013 in Review
2013 was a pretty eventful year for us. I had a year full of personal changes. I kind of hope for a year of fewer changes ahead. Here are some memorable moments.
1. New job/ new career
I started a new job/career right away on January 7th last year. It was as a preschool associate teacher in a GSRP classroom. The job that I thought was a dream come true was really too built up in my mind. The job is not a job I can be proud of due to the requirements of how to "teach" but it did set in motion some possibilities for our future and the money was better than anything I have had ever since I left full time teaching 10 years before.
2. Back to school: GRCC to keep the job
Because of this job, I knew I was going to need tor return to school, which I did at the community college. I have two plans in mind, the first being the smaller of the two degrees and then eventually achieving my ZS teaching endorsement. This is important since I will definitely NOT be in this current position forever and I will need to the endorsement to make decent money in this field when I move on. The classes are ridiculous but I do what I have to do to jump through the hoops that are necessary.
3. New hair:
I got a really bad haircut right after I started this job and as a result I ended up cutting bangs back into my hair which is now going to stick. I went three years without bangs and I think it just suits me better to have my greasy forehead covered by hair.
4. Turned forty
Yes, the dreaded forty. Not pretty but at least I knocked an item off of my bucket list during this milestone birthday. And I spent my 40th birthday at Busch Gardens which was a very fun day with the family.
5. Saw the ocean
I saw and stepped into the ocean for the first time during the week vacation we took on Florida to celebrate my 40th birthday. I wish we had been able to spend more time in the water but hopefully I won't have to wait another 40 years before I see it again.
7. Ran a 5K (and then some more)
When we got home from Florida, something changed in me and I started running. Who knows why since I never ran a day in my life but after a couple of weeks I decided that I was going to run a 5K during the year. By year's end, I had run four of them and have set some hefty goals for the year 2014.
I think these are all the biggies of the year but I think it wold be good to do an update on the others.
8. Steve Barbershop
Steve's quartet was insanely busy ALL YEAR with gigs most weekends and rehearsals an hour north almost every Sunday. They were scheduled to sing in Toronto over the summer but that fell through due to legal difficulties with half of the quartet members. They are looking forward to singing in Las Vegas in 2014 and I may still go with them....That's still up for debate.
9. Aaron
Aaron started 4th grade, played basketball and then flag football. He was graduated from speech and also got to act in his first community play (Hansel and Gretl). He also started volunteering at church running the soundboard a few weeks a month, just like his brother did before.
10. Noah
Noah started middle school and all that entails. His drawing skills have definitely grown and he loves going to middle school youth at church. Our goals for him in 2014 are still to find appropriate social outlets for him that don't involve video games or pokemon. I went in a fun trip with him to Sleeping Bear Dunes with the youth group and I hope there will be more of those to come.
11. Home Changes
Noah painted his bed purple and we rearranged his room to fit more shelves for his stuff. Aaron added a microphone stand complete with microphone and a full karaoke bar to his room. In the living room we moved the entire room (it had been 11 years since we changed things) and I also painted it. It turned way too blue instead of the blue grey I had hoped but we're living with it.
12.Finances
They should have been better this year, given the new job I had. But instead, we had three months of ZERO income since my job is only nine months out of the year. It took the entire fall to get our house back out of foreclosure again and we are being hounded by an underpaid tax bill from three years ago that we just found out about, as well as student loans that we can't afford but have run out of hardship extensions. Not sure what is going to come of those in 2014 but it's not going to be pretty. We are working now to figure out what summer job I can get summer of 2014 to avoid the same problem next fall.
13.Hopes and Dreams
2014 was actually pretty good. No major medical problems or other dilemmas that we couldn't work through. I can't help but feel dread thinking something rough is coming in the year 2014 but for now I can only take it a day at a time and continue to pray that God will keep up in His good graces.
1. New job/ new career
I started a new job/career right away on January 7th last year. It was as a preschool associate teacher in a GSRP classroom. The job that I thought was a dream come true was really too built up in my mind. The job is not a job I can be proud of due to the requirements of how to "teach" but it did set in motion some possibilities for our future and the money was better than anything I have had ever since I left full time teaching 10 years before.
2. Back to school: GRCC to keep the job
Because of this job, I knew I was going to need tor return to school, which I did at the community college. I have two plans in mind, the first being the smaller of the two degrees and then eventually achieving my ZS teaching endorsement. This is important since I will definitely NOT be in this current position forever and I will need to the endorsement to make decent money in this field when I move on. The classes are ridiculous but I do what I have to do to jump through the hoops that are necessary.
3. New hair:
I got a really bad haircut right after I started this job and as a result I ended up cutting bangs back into my hair which is now going to stick. I went three years without bangs and I think it just suits me better to have my greasy forehead covered by hair.
4. Turned forty
Yes, the dreaded forty. Not pretty but at least I knocked an item off of my bucket list during this milestone birthday. And I spent my 40th birthday at Busch Gardens which was a very fun day with the family.
5. Saw the ocean
I saw and stepped into the ocean for the first time during the week vacation we took on Florida to celebrate my 40th birthday. I wish we had been able to spend more time in the water but hopefully I won't have to wait another 40 years before I see it again.
6. Hollywood Studios
We had taken the boys to two of the Disney parks when they were younger and tackled another one of them by taking the boys to Hollywood Studios during our trip to Florida. A very fun day and I am glad we got it in before they got any older since I think they are starting to grow out of some of the magic, which makes me sad.
7. Ran a 5K (and then some more)
When we got home from Florida, something changed in me and I started running. Who knows why since I never ran a day in my life but after a couple of weeks I decided that I was going to run a 5K during the year. By year's end, I had run four of them and have set some hefty goals for the year 2014.
I think these are all the biggies of the year but I think it wold be good to do an update on the others.
8. Steve Barbershop
Steve's quartet was insanely busy ALL YEAR with gigs most weekends and rehearsals an hour north almost every Sunday. They were scheduled to sing in Toronto over the summer but that fell through due to legal difficulties with half of the quartet members. They are looking forward to singing in Las Vegas in 2014 and I may still go with them....That's still up for debate.
9. Aaron
Aaron started 4th grade, played basketball and then flag football. He was graduated from speech and also got to act in his first community play (Hansel and Gretl). He also started volunteering at church running the soundboard a few weeks a month, just like his brother did before.
10. Noah
Noah started middle school and all that entails. His drawing skills have definitely grown and he loves going to middle school youth at church. Our goals for him in 2014 are still to find appropriate social outlets for him that don't involve video games or pokemon. I went in a fun trip with him to Sleeping Bear Dunes with the youth group and I hope there will be more of those to come.
11. Home Changes
Noah painted his bed purple and we rearranged his room to fit more shelves for his stuff. Aaron added a microphone stand complete with microphone and a full karaoke bar to his room. In the living room we moved the entire room (it had been 11 years since we changed things) and I also painted it. It turned way too blue instead of the blue grey I had hoped but we're living with it.
12.Finances
They should have been better this year, given the new job I had. But instead, we had three months of ZERO income since my job is only nine months out of the year. It took the entire fall to get our house back out of foreclosure again and we are being hounded by an underpaid tax bill from three years ago that we just found out about, as well as student loans that we can't afford but have run out of hardship extensions. Not sure what is going to come of those in 2014 but it's not going to be pretty. We are working now to figure out what summer job I can get summer of 2014 to avoid the same problem next fall.
13.Hopes and Dreams
2014 was actually pretty good. No major medical problems or other dilemmas that we couldn't work through. I can't help but feel dread thinking something rough is coming in the year 2014 but for now I can only take it a day at a time and continue to pray that God will keep up in His good graces.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Christmas Recap 2013
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The day after Christmas coma has arrived. Aaron has already been sent back to bed for a half hour for attitude adjustment and I can't seem to get my butt off the couch from under a blanket. I had the living room mostly clean before I headed to bed last night but it seems to have become a disaster overnight. I want to record some of the highlights and a few things I want to remember for next year.Christmas Eve was a little odd this year since we didn't go to church on the actual Christmas Eve. Our church tried something new this year and did identical services on the Sunday before and Christmas Eve. Because Steve had to work on Christmas Eve, we chose to do the service on Sunday, which was fine but I definitely think I missed not going on Christmas Eve.
We got all of our baking done on Christmas Eve, as I have the last two years. Unlike last year though, the boys were completely into it and we made gingerbread decorated with candy before they cooked as well as sugar cookies that the boys frosted and decorated. The boys got along really well all day on Christmas Eve which was a change and they even went outside to play for awhile with no fighting that day. It was amazing!
After Steve got home we went out for dinner to On the Border and then came home and opened the presents we had gotten each other from Five Below. We got the boys to bed at the regular time and then settled in to wait until they fell asleep to bring stuff down.Christmas morning was nice. The boys waited until 7:30 to come wake us up, which was impressive I thought. Present opening was somewhat uneventful except that we did surprise the boys with the technology items they had been hoping for. I got great video of both of them opening their big gifts. I made a breakfast casserole that was pretty good, even though neither of the boys liked it. We went to Frozen at Rivertown in the early afternoon, which was a very good movie. We came home and had our usual dinner, although it really wasn't all that well received my anyone. I think we were all just burned out from Christmas by then. The boys spent quite a bit of time on their tech items throughout the day which was fine since they were new but it is clear that we are going to have to ration their time on the devices.
Now we are in day after coma. I am hoping to get out to Target at some point today and Steve is going to be gone all day and night for a barbershop thing so it's just me and the boys again. It was a pretty laid back Christmas and that is just a good way for it to be,. Not very many presents for the boys but they really liked what they got so that's all that matters.
Now for the Thank you cards. Hoping to get them done by New Year's Day.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
2013...My Newest Venture
So it's been another two months since my last post. To say it has been busy is a bit of an understatement, but isn't it for all moms? Trying to settle into a routine this school year has been a challenge, in many ways.
But, as things start to settle in some ways, things get busier in others. Today I completed a milestone though so I thought I would post a little about it since I am feeling nostalgic (and I need a break from the mind numbing existence that is facebook). I figure I need to write a little of my history of this journey so I never forget.
Back in January, I began the year that I would turn 40. I hated the view in the mirror, as I was EXTREMELY close to the 200 lb mark and disgusted by it.
I tried Weight Watchers yet again and by May had only lost a total of twelve pounds and was starving all the time. Then we went for my birthday family vacation trip to Florida and a few days after we got back I made a change that I hope to last the rest of my life.
Aaron had asked me to go play tennis with him and I agreed. We played for over an hour and I worked up a great sweat and felt so alive for the first time in a long time. A few days later he asked again and we did so again. At that time, I started wondering what it would take to try to run a little bit. I went out and couldn't even go three driveways before I was huffing and puffing and felt like I was going to die.
After some gradual increases, I got to the point where I could run a mile without walking and I made a crazy decision to try to run a 5K before the year was over. So I went home, searched the computer and found one for September 15th, three months later. I figured I could get myself to that point. My goal was to run it in under 45 minutes.
A short while later, I started becoming obsessed with reading everything I could about running and even entered a contest to run a "practice" 5K. Crazily enough, I won and I found myself registered to run my first 5K on August 1st, six weeks earlier than I had planned!
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August 1st came and I was scared to death as I lined up for the Metro Way 5K. It was not pretty. It was not fast. I even walked a bit of it. But I finished it with a smile on my face. My amazingly supportive husband and my sons were there and I was so proud. My time was just over 38 minutes. I figured for a first 5K for someone of my weight, it wasn't a bad start. AND I had my REAL first 5K only 6 weeks later.
Six weeks later, I found myself again at a 5K starting line. This time it was for the Grand Rapids Bridge Run and I was feeling more prepared this time. As I was getting lined up, the skies opened and huge raindrops came pounding down. I had given Steve and the boys permission to go to church rather than being at the waiting line this time. But as I was coming halfway through mile 2, I looked over to the Gerald Ford Museum parking lot and there were three awesome Wheelz Boys, cheering for Mommy. After turning the last corner, they had walked up the street and were there again waiting for me. This time Aaron even ran about a half of a block with me toward the finish line. I cut abut two minutes off my time and enjoyed the chocolate milk at the finish line before heading home to dry off and take a very long bath.
Then school started and I wondered if I was going to be able to keep up with this running thing. No question, it became more and more difficult as my schedule had something every night of the week and the skies became dark earlier and earlier in the evening. I figured the only way to get motivated again was to sign up for more "races". So I found one that ran through a local college, which looked like fun.
For the Grand Valley Turkey Trot the Saturday before Thanksgiving, I recruited my teaching partner from last year, who was one of the three women who motivated me to try this running thing in the first place. The forecast for the race was a 16 degree windchill and I was panicked about what to wear. I had to justify the cost of some cold weather running gear and even then I didn't know if what I got would satisfy that cold of weather. I was also nervous because this would be the first time I would be running with a partner, after having spent 5 months only doing solo running in training. There were definitely good and bad moments of the event. The timing got goofed so I don't have an accurate time and the route was pretty uninteresting. But running with my friend Heather made the day great, with a chance to catch up and we were very evenly matched as running partners. (She has since asked me to do a half...yeah right!)
After that, the Michigan snow season began and getting out to run became even more difficult than it was before. BUT...my sister, who was another of the three women who motivated to begin this journey, asked me if I was going to run the Whoville 5K with her. $30 for a race in the throes of winter didn't seem very feasible, but I still went ahead to enter. I was extremely nervous for this one as well, given that as of the morning of the race I had still never run in snow.
So December 15th (this morning) arrived and I bundled up, again having no clue if I was wearing enough clothes. My sister gave me a wonderful gift when I got there, which was yak trax which are basically coils that attach to your running shoes to make your run grip the snow.
The race did not have an official time and that wasn't the point of the race anyway. It was so very fun. The snow was coming down hard as I ran along the Grand River riverbank and it was absolutely beautiful. My frozen toes started to thaw a bit after about the first mile and a quarter. Every so often a Grinch would jump out at you to throw you off and Things 1 and 2 would hide behind trees and throw snow balls at you if you weren't paying attention. It was a blast and by far my favorite of the FOUR 5K races I have run in the past 6 months. It was fun doing it with my sister too! When I got back in my car, I saw that the wind chill outside while we were running was a balmy SEVEN DEGREES. I felt like I had conquered a mountain!
So here I am at the end of six months contemplating where do I go from here. I have many ideas. After today I know that I can handle this cold weather and don't need to stop. I have spent some time already today researching the next few races in which I want to participate.
But mostly I just think of how far I have come in six months and hope that I can stay with it and not quit. Yes I am a quitter and hoping to break that habit when it comes to my running. Will I be sitting here a year from now writing about new running
accomplishments that occur in 2014? Or will I discover that I just didn't have the discipline to push through? I guess only time will tell.
But, as things start to settle in some ways, things get busier in others. Today I completed a milestone though so I thought I would post a little about it since I am feeling nostalgic (and I need a break from the mind numbing existence that is facebook). I figure I need to write a little of my history of this journey so I never forget.
Back in January, I began the year that I would turn 40. I hated the view in the mirror, as I was EXTREMELY close to the 200 lb mark and disgusted by it.
I tried Weight Watchers yet again and by May had only lost a total of twelve pounds and was starving all the time. Then we went for my birthday family vacation trip to Florida and a few days after we got back I made a change that I hope to last the rest of my life.
Aaron had asked me to go play tennis with him and I agreed. We played for over an hour and I worked up a great sweat and felt so alive for the first time in a long time. A few days later he asked again and we did so again. At that time, I started wondering what it would take to try to run a little bit. I went out and couldn't even go three driveways before I was huffing and puffing and felt like I was going to die.
After some gradual increases, I got to the point where I could run a mile without walking and I made a crazy decision to try to run a 5K before the year was over. So I went home, searched the computer and found one for September 15th, three months later. I figured I could get myself to that point. My goal was to run it in under 45 minutes.
A short while later, I started becoming obsessed with reading everything I could about running and even entered a contest to run a "practice" 5K. Crazily enough, I won and I found myself registered to run my first 5K on August 1st, six weeks earlier than I had planned!
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August 1st came and I was scared to death as I lined up for the Metro Way 5K. It was not pretty. It was not fast. I even walked a bit of it. But I finished it with a smile on my face. My amazingly supportive husband and my sons were there and I was so proud. My time was just over 38 minutes. I figured for a first 5K for someone of my weight, it wasn't a bad start. AND I had my REAL first 5K only 6 weeks later.Six weeks later, I found myself again at a 5K starting line. This time it was for the Grand Rapids Bridge Run and I was feeling more prepared this time. As I was getting lined up, the skies opened and huge raindrops came pounding down. I had given Steve and the boys permission to go to church rather than being at the waiting line this time. But as I was coming halfway through mile 2, I looked over to the Gerald Ford Museum parking lot and there were three awesome Wheelz Boys, cheering for Mommy. After turning the last corner, they had walked up the street and were there again waiting for me. This time Aaron even ran about a half of a block with me toward the finish line. I cut abut two minutes off my time and enjoyed the chocolate milk at the finish line before heading home to dry off and take a very long bath.
Then school started and I wondered if I was going to be able to keep up with this running thing. No question, it became more and more difficult as my schedule had something every night of the week and the skies became dark earlier and earlier in the evening. I figured the only way to get motivated again was to sign up for more "races". So I found one that ran through a local college, which looked like fun.
For the Grand Valley Turkey Trot the Saturday before Thanksgiving, I recruited my teaching partner from last year, who was one of the three women who motivated me to try this running thing in the first place. The forecast for the race was a 16 degree windchill and I was panicked about what to wear. I had to justify the cost of some cold weather running gear and even then I didn't know if what I got would satisfy that cold of weather. I was also nervous because this would be the first time I would be running with a partner, after having spent 5 months only doing solo running in training. There were definitely good and bad moments of the event. The timing got goofed so I don't have an accurate time and the route was pretty uninteresting. But running with my friend Heather made the day great, with a chance to catch up and we were very evenly matched as running partners. (She has since asked me to do a half...yeah right!)
After that, the Michigan snow season began and getting out to run became even more difficult than it was before. BUT...my sister, who was another of the three women who motivated to begin this journey, asked me if I was going to run the Whoville 5K with her. $30 for a race in the throes of winter didn't seem very feasible, but I still went ahead to enter. I was extremely nervous for this one as well, given that as of the morning of the race I had still never run in snow.
So December 15th (this morning) arrived and I bundled up, again having no clue if I was wearing enough clothes. My sister gave me a wonderful gift when I got there, which was yak trax which are basically coils that attach to your running shoes to make your run grip the snow.
The race did not have an official time and that wasn't the point of the race anyway. It was so very fun. The snow was coming down hard as I ran along the Grand River riverbank and it was absolutely beautiful. My frozen toes started to thaw a bit after about the first mile and a quarter. Every so often a Grinch would jump out at you to throw you off and Things 1 and 2 would hide behind trees and throw snow balls at you if you weren't paying attention. It was a blast and by far my favorite of the FOUR 5K races I have run in the past 6 months. It was fun doing it with my sister too! When I got back in my car, I saw that the wind chill outside while we were running was a balmy SEVEN DEGREES. I felt like I had conquered a mountain!So here I am at the end of six months contemplating where do I go from here. I have many ideas. After today I know that I can handle this cold weather and don't need to stop. I have spent some time already today researching the next few races in which I want to participate.
But mostly I just think of how far I have come in six months and hope that I can stay with it and not quit. Yes I am a quitter and hoping to break that habit when it comes to my running. Will I be sitting here a year from now writing about new running
accomplishments that occur in 2014? Or will I discover that I just didn't have the discipline to push through? I guess only time will tell.
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