Beach Babes!

Schoooool's out for summer!.......Well, not yet, but it sure did seem like it today.  I guess the feeling started yesterday.  It was the last day of school before the Easter holiday weekend.  I had like a million things to do.  Let's see, there was packing things for Lucy's party, packing things for Gavin's party, packing things for my class party, cooking for the staff breakfast, an Easter egg hunt, a class party, parents coming in, last day for Meredith (best intern ever!:() and still had a little time to teach about fact and opinion, living vs. nonliving things, time of day and poetry!   I have no idea why I was so exhausted by 4:00!!! Anyway, after I dropped the last of my sweet angels off at the bus, I had this giant exhale.  Like I had made it to some kind of milestone.  Like something fantastic was about to happen. Like, like I had made it to summer!!!! Then a tiny thought popped in....

Tiny thought "ummmm, it's only a 3 day weekend"
Me "ummmm, I'LL TAKE IT!!"

LOL! Okay, so thats how we got to today.  Andrew had to work...surprise, surprise.  Gav went to hang with a cousin, so it was just me and The Bug.  What to do, what to do?  We couldn't stay home all day. 1-because it was too beeeeauuutifuuulll out and b-we have to be quiet at home while Andrew is at work.  LOL! Have you met Lucy??????  Needless to say, I was packing our bag.  Just in time too, cause we got a call from good ole Grammy.  Grammy, aka, my mom was looking for a good time too :)  We discussed the usual suspects- shopping? lunch? How about the beach?  

Tiny thought "ummmmm don't forget the last 2 times that you took Lucy to the beach.  Remember how she kept running away and trying to dig into other peoples' things?  Remember how she ran face first into the ocean over and over?  Remember that it was the opposite of fun and you swore you'd never do it again?"
Me  "ummmmm Okay, let's go!"

LOL! Why not, right? So off we went! My mom is great company.  And Lucy behaves for her way better than she does for me.  The drive was nice.  My mom and I got caught up on each others' business and when we arrived at our destination, Pass A Grille, there was ample parking.  Good sign.  We drug our chairs, umbrella, towels, lunch, bags, and 2 yr old out onto the gleaming white sandy beach.  WOW!  I believe 100% that there will be a beach in Heaven.  Beyond being completely gorgeous, the beach is also therapy for me. Not necessarily when Lucy is present but we were gonna give it a shot :)  We set up camp near the crystal clear water.  As I started to organize, I also anticipated Lucy taking her 1st giant leap of the day into the blue abyss.  I watched her as she approached, bucket in hand.  She moved slowly to the edge....then stopped.  WOW!  I could not believe it!  That was the beginning of the 1sts for the day.  1st time not running into the ocean.  1st time not running away constantly. 1st time not digging in strangers' lunchboxes. 1st time being content at the waters edge.  1st time attacked by a seagull over a chip!  LOL!  We had such a great time.  The day had a perfect balance of fun and relaxation and excitement!! 
1st Best Day at the beach with 3 generations!!
1st sign that when Schooooool's out for summer, these 3 beach babes will be headed back to the beach!   

 

Iron Girl 2011

I know you are probably thinking-Wow 2 blogs in 1 day! What up with that?  Well, it just so happens that I went to dinner with my parents and drank about a gallon of Diet Coke! mmmmmm I heart it! One day I will blog about it :) Anyway, by my calculations, all that caffeine will have me awake until, say, Tuesday or so :)  Sooooo, I thought I would take some time to share with you my latest accomplishment.

I have a degree to teach.  I have a license to do hair.  School is my thing.  I can do it.  Always could.  Sports, however, is a different story.  I have never been particularly athletic.  I played soccer in high school where I kept the bench warm the first few years.  And I usually join a gym (and never go) every once in a while.  This is the extent of my athletic career.....until the beginning of March.  

At school I have a friend.  We will call her LP.  LP does the running and gym thing often.  She mentioned to me, probably in jest 1 day that I should run this 5k race with her coming up in Clearwater.  Maybe she thought I was a runner, or maybe she was giving me a subtle hint, I dont know.  Anyway, I kindly told her no thanks because the only time I would run was if someone was chasing me!  We laughed and I went on about my life.  Except I had this nagging feeling.  For days I questioned myself.  Can I do it?  Am I too afraid to try?  What would be required of me?  So I set out to find out.  I decided that it had been way too log since I had done something out of my comfort zone.  A challenge was just what I needed to test myself.  I decided to sign up.  

I only had a few weeks to train.  I wasn't trying to beat any records or win 1st place, I just wanted to do my personal best.  The 1st week was great.  Training went well, I was eating well and feeling great.  I had all kinds of motivation.  Week 2 brought daily monsoons to good ole Land O Lakes.  Bad weather, friends.  Tornadoes, power outages, school bus delays-bad, bad weather.  During that rainy week while everything else was rinsed away, so was my steam :( So the last week of training was more like a week of resting up :)

The big day arrived! I was not nervous.  I knew that all I could do was to give it my best.  My 1 hope-I truly hope and pray that I do not come in dead last.  That would be too embarrassing.  Not to mention LP would prob laugh at me :) Anyway, it was dark until right before we took off.  At 7:00, the 1/2 marathon began.  Now those ladies are hard core for sure! Alas. 7:15am Sun. April 11.  It was my turn!!!! The energy at the starting line was electric. I was hoping for a gun shot to signal go, but we settled for the announcer on the mic.  Mark. Set, Go! Off we went.  I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with LP and another friend of the day Primo.  But I also didn't expect them to tear off the start line like it was the 50 yard dash, but they did.  I was on my own.  For the 1st 1/2 mile, I worked on finding a good pace.  It was still crowded at that point too, so only a few were out ahead.  Shortly after that we saw the 1 mile mark.  WOW! I was 1/3 of the way finished with this race and I was still running at a pretty nice pace. At this point, I made a conscious effort to steady my breathing.  I could see up ahead was the turnaround point which would mark the 1/2 way point.  Happiness!!! I still felt okay.  It was during this leg of the race that I began to start getting weak.  We were close to 1.5 mi and I wanted to stop and walk.  You can do this, you can do this, you can do this.  I began chanting to myself.  I blocked every other thought out of my head except these words.  And guess what..it worked!  Another 1/2 mile down (we are at 2mi now) And here is where we I ran into a small technical difficulty.  Okay so picture this.  1.2 miles to go.  Middle of the course on the side of the road.  Breathing steady.  Positive self talk going on.  What could go wrong now?  Remember this song "When youre slidin into first......._________!
Yes.  Okay.  So needless to say my jog immediately slows into a walk.  What the heck?  It came out of nowhere!  And I already have serious public bathroom issues/anxieties.  Okay.  I can handle this.  The feeling subsides after a bit of walking.  So I am still in a race and I want to run again.  Not so fast!  I played this walk-or else game with my body until close to the end of the race.  I was back to jogging by the last 1/2 mi and actually sprinted to the finish line!  Holy Cow! I did it!  I ran a 5K!  I was and still am super proud of myself.  


The rest of the morning was great too. They served us this delish and healthy meal of breakfast burritos, muffins, yogurt, banana and juice.  Then we shopped around at little booths.  Close to 10am we were ready to head out, still on a high from our fab morning.  I went home and showered and took a little nap before my family got home from church.  Then I gave them all the play by play of the day!
Check out all my Race Bling.

And my race number.  Pinned to my shirt, it made me feel so official! :)  (Its the little things for me remember)

And the look on my face....

Thanks to LP and Primo for the invite and the encouragement!  I am looking forward to more racing.  This was a blast!  Strong and healthy is how I want to live.  Hopefully this is my 1st step!
Thanks,
KBO

SPRING!

I am a big, no, HUGE fan of warm weather!  You already know this about me if you read my "Who am I" section :) So when the past dreadful winter season ended and the weather became more bearable, this girl was SUPER happy! Christmas is definitely a fav time of year also.  But when all the hustle and bustle, 1,000 parties, and excessive gift giving/receiving (not to mention the cold) starts, I am pretty much OVER it!!  Spring brings with it so many wonderful things!  First and foremost.....

  

He Is Risen!!!

Friends, if you did not know this, or are taking it for granted (as I do sooooo much of the time), let us all reflect.  Do you sometimes wonder how you got so "lucky"? We have an answer!!! Drum roll please........."Every good and perfect gift is from above...." James 1:17 NIV.  WOW!  I am so thankful and blessed in my life and NOW is the best time to refocus and reprioritize!  Happy Easter!!

Other fantastic Spring occurrences are.... Chick-A-Thon, of course. And by the way, in context of the world, this should be called PVE Bird-A-Thon. In our hallways at school there is a nest every few feet full of baby birds!  The mother birds are super aggressive toward all humans on campus!  You will get a few flyby warnings, then you may get a full blown knock out if you get too close to the babies.  Speaking of the babies, just yesterday, a scared and probably wingless baby bird latched onto a kids' shirt and pooped all over him!  He was in the office running all around and the secretary went and hid in her office.....hi-lar-i-ous!! I know the poor kid was scared but no doubt the bird was more scared.  Anyway, we are knee deep in the egg hatching around here and it is always exciting!! 


More good news from the home front, outside play has become the hot nightly routine.  My son is the ultimate "Indoor Person"  He even has a shirt that says it, lol.  But lately, the trampoline is in high demand and even the footballs and soccer balls are getting some play time.  I foresee some improvements in the back yard for mom and dad as well.  I attribute all of this outside time to the beautiful afternoons and mild evenings of...... SPRING!!   
Lastly, my baby's preschool does an annual Hat Parade to celebrate Spring.  This was our 1st experience so we were pretty hyped!  The morning of the parade, my husband took her to school.  He didn't dress her in what I had laid out (we had a conversation about that later) so I didn't even recognize her!! Anyway, seeing the 2 year old class come out is cute enough, but then I recognized someone I know and my heart melted!!

This is my most favorite 2 yr old on the planet.  She is a big fan of me, too, now that I came to see her showcase her Spring Bonnet!

LOL! She was little confused about the objective.  Listen people, I told you it was her 1st parade, so of course she didn't know what was going on! 

She got comfy with a friend, but poor Tytan wasn't as fond of picture time :)

We got a good smile out of our pal Logan.  I also hear he put that whole outfit together on his own!! He is def stylin'


Friends, sometimes we all feel like everyday is "Groundhogs Day" Like we wake up and do the same thing over and over again everyday and we are constantly running in a rat race.  But we have to take a moment to reflect on our blessings and prioritize the things that matter most.  Try to turn negative thoughts into positives.  Try to smile at someone in passing.  Listen to a bird chirp.  Throw a football.  Watch a hat parade.  Spring has all the elements needed to focus on just..... the little things! 
Love,
KBO