C2 WHAT...???

I must be having a mid-life crisis finally...or something! Somehow I got the hair-brained idea that it would be a good idea to run a 1/2 marathon, yeah, me the aging non-runner! Speaking of hair-brained, that's kind of where the story turns!

As mentioned, I have never been a runner, never even really entertained the thought of becoming one. Yes, I did sort of train to 'run' the Wenatchee 5k a few years ago, but I really didn't believe that I'd run it, just that I could give it my really best 'speed walk' effort. I was, after all, raised by Mr. Speed Walker himself, Jerry Larkin.

When I was a kid if you wanted to go anywhere with Dad, you darn well better have your tennis shoes on because there was no 'lolly gagging' around. No sir-eee, WE went places with a PURPOSE! Anyway, that was pretty much the extent of my life long training except when I was getting ready for the Wenatchee race and did some speed walking with a tiny smattering of jogging...UNTIL I went to my hair dresser this spring.

So...I go to Danna just to get a haircut mind you and the darn girl inspires me to add a 1/2 marathon to my bucket list! You see, Danna has never been a runner either, but in 4 months she prepared herself to run a 1/2 marathon. Now keep in mind, my hair dresser is a friend of my daughter Lindsey. They are in their 20s for pete's sake not approaching 50! So in my warped aging mind I figure, well Denise if Danna can prepare in 4 months and you're older than she is, you should give yourself a little extra time. So, in a moment of generosity I decide that 6 months is plenty of time for a 49 year old total couch potato to prepare.

I still don't understand what came over me! But, I'm happy to report that I started the runners journey on April 7th with the Couch to 5k program (aka c25k). This is my first baby step to preparing for a 1/2 marathon, because it's really hard to run 13.1 miles if you can't even run from the front yard to the back! I'm determined to achieve my goal and have made sure that even when I have sick days I do makeup work so I stay on track. I committed (paid my entrance fee) to run a 5k in the Free Wheeling Run in Eagle, ID on June 9th when I'll be in Boise for Lindsey's baby Brooklyn's birth. My final c25k training day is on Wednesday the 6th and then race day on Saturday!

I have my eye on the Indian Summer Run in Tri-Cities at the end of September for my 1/2 marathon (registration doesn't open until June). That would keep me within my 6 month goal and would have me running a 1/2 marathon a few weeks before my 50th birthday. That'd be a pretty good way to celebrate a milestone birthday, don't you think?

My oh my!!

Keeping Busy

I've been keeping busy recently. We really enjoyed having Lindsey and Thomas come visit for a long weekend last weekend (March 29th). It was fun to host a baby shower for her while she was here. I really enjoyed trying to transform the house into girl territory! Wendy Middleton helped me host it. She was gracious enough to be our photographer for the evening. She made her awesome artichoke dip and also made some yummy raspberry sherbet and ginger ale frappe. Along with that I bought some tasty pastry treats and made a delicious 4 layer strawberry lemonade cake and a chocolate mousse pie. The turnout was very good (thankfully as that is always a source of anxiety for me when hosting a party) and everyone seemed to enjoy the company, the refreshments and the games. We played 'Don't Say Baby', Baby Shower Bingo and the Baby Attributes game. Lindsey got a lot of wonderful gifts. In fact, their car was FULL for the trip home! While Lindsey and Thomas were here we made a visit to Grandpa's, took a couple of walks, played games went out to eat and just enjoyed each other's company. This week is spring break so I'm not getting up early for Seminary each morning. Lindsey and Thomas were kind enough to bring me the Hunger Games trilogy of books to borrow. I'd previously listened to the first book, so I started in on the second book and ended up finishing the third book today! They are too hard to put down and with no need to get up early in the morning and Darvin working graveyard shift this week...well that's all I need to get into bookworm mode!

Good News Yesterday!

Grandpa Clement called me yesterday afternoon to tell me that Tigger had been found! Poor little guy had gotten stuck in the vent 'well' right next to the sliding glass door at Grandpa's. I don't know if he was stuck there the whole 3 days or not, but thankfully Grandpa found him before it was too late. He fished him out and set him down in the house and Tigger raced straight for the food. I'm so glad he is safe and sound!

Fun then Sad

Today I had fun playing with the Middleton boys. I got to watch the boys for a few hours this afternoon as Wendy and her sister went to a concert in Seattle for her sister's birthday. The boys were complete dolls! Once everyone left and after nap time Mason decided I was his best buddy! While I was there we played with monster trucks and play dough and matched the fridge magnet ABCs to the ABC rug and just had an all around good time! Evan was a little sweetheart too, what a happy little munchkin. He'd be sitting there playing with his toys and after a while I noticed that he'd turned himself around, very discreetly and while still sitting! They both loved having me sing to them. I hope I get to play with the boys again soon!

This evening I received some very sad news. Dad stopped by Grandpa's on his way home from work and learned while he was there that Tigger is missing. Grandpa had been letting Tigger go outside (the cat that is PETRIFIED of life itself) and he's been gone for a couple of days now. Grandpa's sure that someone's adopted him. Dad and I suspect that he went somewhere to die as he had been looking quite frail lately. So, so sad!

Busy, Busy

I'm happy to report that I did 'catch a break' with my broken tooth (pun intended) of a few days ago! My awesome dentist Tyler Bauer recommended that although substantial, if it were him, he'd have the tooth filled rather than use a crown. So that's what he did. Only a few hundred dollars rather than a few thousand!

I've been keeping myself busy getting ready for the baby shower that I'm hosting for Lindsey on March 29th. I'm having a lot of fun with it, especially since she's having a girl! Won't be posting any pictures until after the 28th when she and Thomas arrive because in the mean time it's super secret squirrel stuff!! The diaper cake is done, party favors are about half done. Briana helped me get started on everything before she moved, so I've had a head start. I'm trying to work on it a little at a time so I don't feel stressed and rushed when we get close to the actual date. I'm pretty sure I'm making way too many party favors, but people aren't very good about RSVPing these days, so I'd rather be safe than sorry.

This weekend I've had fun making some St. Patrick's Day cupcakes for my Seminary class. St. Patrick's day was yesterday and normally I would have taken the treat on Friday, but one of my students signed up to bring treats Friday, so I didn't see anything wrong with a treat on Monday too! In fact, this will be 6 days in a row of Seminary treats! Last week on Tuesday through Thursday was standardized testing at school. The freshmen and sophomores attended school at the regular time and juniors and seniors got to sleep in AND we changed to daylight savings time last weekend, it was dark again and we were tired. So I told the kids we'd have a week of treats to compensate and we did! It wasn't anything too fabulous, but the kids seemed to appreciate it and I had the opportunity to incorporate the treat as an object lesson on one day!

It looks like we're going to be adopting soon. A puppy that is. My friend Denise Gum and her husband Gordon adopted a black lab about a month ago. They didn't realize that she was pregnant. The puppies will be two weeks old tomorrow. We are planning on adopting a boy as I've researched online it seems like that will cause the least amount of problems for Abby to adjust. It's been very quiet around here since the Pascual's moved to Texas, so we're hopeful that a puppy will help fill the void for all of us including Abby! She's acted pretty lonely and dejected since her little boys have been gone. I'm a little anxious about what exactly we're getting ourselves into. The last puppy we adopted was Abby about 10 years ago and I think it's like child-birth, God makes it so that, in time, you forget so you'll be willing to go through it again! lol

Just Can't Seem to Catch a Break!

Wow, will all of 2012 be crappy?! I was chewing on a sucker this afternoon when all of a sudden I felt something else hard and sharp in my mouth. It seems that I broke one of my back teeth! When I called the dentist's office for an appointment I thought that, although substantial, I hadn't broken the tooth down to the nerve, so they gave me the next available regular appointment which is Thursday morning. As the day progressed I was proven wrong. I have sensitivity to air, cold and heat. I bought a temporary dental filling repair kit this evening. I'm not in constant pain, so will call the dentist in the morning to see if they're OK with me using it, or if I should just try to 'tough it out'. GRRRR!!

Weekend Getaway

Darvin and I are spending the weekend in Seattle. Northwest School of Massage has a free Partner/Thai Stretching Workshop that we'll be attending this afternoon. Our chiropractor highly recommends any stretching exercises for Darvin in particular. This is a 2 hour workshop that's 'hands on'. They welcome cameras to take pictures of any stretches that are particularly effective. This is great since so much material was presented at their couples massage workshop that it kind of became an overload of information!

We're staying at a Ramada Limited in Seatac. We ate Safeway chinese food and ice cream for dinner last night. Our hotel room has a fridge and microwave, so we have some leftovers we can enjoy later this weekend too!

I've been really sick this week with major congestion in my chest, throat and ears. The airplane trip home Tuesday was horrible with my ears hurting tremendously on each take off and landing. I've been doing a lot of sleeping/resting to try to shake it! Drinking lots of water to loosen up the congestion. I was still feeling pretty bad on Thursday, but have felt better and better each day. Poor Darvin has to listen to my 'barking'. I've coughed so much that I have a chronic sore throat and headache! I was able to sleep through the night last night without using any NyQuil, although I guess I started coughing sometime early this morning, waking Darvin up. Thankfully, he was able to go back to sleep.

Now back from the workshop. It was GREAT! Darvin said he felt great afterward. Unfortunately I tweaked my back trying to do one of the stretching moves on him. Hopefully it won't bother me for long as we need to keep doing the stretching exercises regularly. It seems like the stretching may have helped loosen up my congestion even more, hooray!No Darvin's not praying to an idol god, just practicing one of the stretching moves at the hotel after the workshop!