Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Can you smell it?

Take a deep breath.  Through your nose.  Ohhh, what's the delicious smell?  It smells like Coppertone, crispy marshmallows, popsicles, and chlorine.

It's summertime!

Well, almost.  We still have 7 days of school left.  But they are filled with celebrations and awards and general fun stuff (until the end when I'll give end of year finals to my tech aps kiddos).

It's harder and harder to get the boys out of bed in the morning.  I keep thinking only 7 more times.  They are excited about staying up late and sleeping in.

We went to our neighborhood pool for the first time this year on Saturday.  I really enjoyed it.  Ryan and the big boys played in the pool.  Brennan and I hung out in the baby pool.  Brennan is all over the place so it's hard to keep up with him but so much fun.

Ryan gave the boys their summer hair cut last night.  Zac went for a full buzz.  Sam left some hair on the top with a buzz on the side.  Sam will get his annual mohawk/fauxhawk next Friday in honor of the last day of school.

We have our Texas Rangers tickets lined up.  We are staying close to home with summer. I'm teaching summer school.  We'll be busy but not as busy as usual.

I can't wait!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Do the Write Thing for Nashville

I am slightly addicted to twitter.  My husband says heavily addicted but that's not the point of this post.  Twitter is great for slightly shy people like me.  You can watch things go on and pop in every now and then.

I've watched an amazing thing unfold.  Myra McEntire, Amanda Morgan and Victoria Schwab have done something so much bigger than themselves. I've known Myra through twitter and I know she's a giving and caring person.  I'll assume that Amanda and Victoria are also by proxy. They banded together to put on an bookish auction to raise money for Middle Tennessee flood victims. 

It's taken on a life of it's own. The prizes are amazing.  The bids are huge.  It's just awesome.

I haven't won a thing but I've loved it. The bid are so, so high. It's wonderful.

I'll tell you what.  I've been very effected by this.  By the transparency of the organizers.  The generousity of the donors.  The outrageous bidders.

I'm still a wanna be in the publishing world.  But it doesn't seem as scary anymore.

And all for a great cause.

Now, go bid.  http://dothewritethingfornashville.blogspot.com

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Goal Met!

As you may recall, in January I popped off that not only would I run a 5K but I would run 5 5Ks.  Well, friends, I actually did it!  And it spectacular fashion, I might add.

I started with the Mardi Gras Run.  Then we did the Dash Down Greenville.  I didn't blog about that one but it was not great.  I ran the entire time but there were 5000 people in the race.  Way too many for me.  And it was the first time my otherwise fabulous husband ran with me. 

I say otherwise fabulous because he is wonderful and encouraging and all that.  But he does train at all and blows me out of the water at these races.  That's what he did at the Dash Down Greenville.

My third race was the Heart of Heath.  I ran this one with my fabulous sister in law Laura.  She's amazing.  She stays with me and pushes me.  I didn't get into a good breathing rhythm but I pressed on.  And again, Ryan ran too.  Took off and beat me.  I'm really trying to not be bitter...

My fourth and fifth races were this past weekend.  On Saturday we did the Raider Country Run that benefits the booster club at the school where I teach and my boys attend.  Laura did the 1 mile fun run with all our boys since she had half marathon on Sunday.  Ryan  and I did the 5K.   He stayed with me for the most part.  I had trouble getting into a breathing rhythm again so I struggled.  It was fun though because my students were running too.  Towards the end I told him to go ahead (which I always too but I always get miffed that he does.  I know, that makes it my issue and not his).  But then I caught up with him and we finished together.  I found out later that afternoon that I got 2nd in my age group!  We left before the awards.  One, because I didn't know there were awards.  Two, because my kids were going nuts.  And three, because I never dreamed I'd win a medal.

My fifth race was an 'adventure' run.  The Warrior Dash.  It was so much fun.  We ran through mud, slide down a muddy hill, climbed over stuff, jumped over fire and crawled through mud/under barbed wire at the end.  Ryan did a great job of staying with me.  Given my bad ankles (and the fact that I twisted it the weekend before), I was very cautious in the mud.  So, I slowed us up - a lot!  But he was great.  Even when I had a panic attack in the lake.  We were going over logs and I went over one and couldn't touch the bottom of the lake.  He reached out for me and I screamed "Stop pushing me!".   My real goal for the Warrior Dash was to finish uninjured, without crying and without help.  Ryan helped me over one of the logs post-panic but I think I did great.  Ryan was not thrilled with our time and ranking but I thought we rocked. 

So there you have it!  I'm going to start the Couch to 10K program next week.  But I'm going to keep running 5Ks. I don't want to tackle a 10K until I can finish a 5K without feeling that death is eminent.  But next year, I AM DOING A 10K. 

What goal are you working on?