Toast 2 Mom

38 Special

All these years and today I found out that turning 38 really is special! :) Today is my birthday - and what a great day it has been!

In a lot of ways, it was a very typical Thursday - but with a lot of extra special-ness all piled on top. 

I woke up and went to tennis. I started some lessons over the summer. Thursdays are my days with the intermediate ladies group. They are tough, and I really enjoy it! Miss Cheekers is amazing and sits at a picnic table for an hour just coloring and singing and doing her Cheeky thing while I play. 

After tennis we headed to the gym for Natalie's gymnastics class. Knowing I would indulge in goodies today, I went for an extra run during her class. The weather was so nice outside today. I ran three miles and enjoyed a truly fall feeling day. 

Then my gal and I raced over to the elementary school to have lunch with Sydney. What a treat to have a birthday lunch with my best gals!

I sold some cookies today - so even better to make some money on my birthday. So after lunch, I had to do some business stuff and house-tasks in preparation for some company we have coming into town this weekend for the Formula One race. 

Our babysittr arrived at 5:00. The Hubby and I had dinner plans at a super tasty sushi restaurant. Turns out we got some extra quality time because traffic was quite heavy in town, and we ended up being over 30 minutes late to our reservations. No worries. It was excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed a get dressed up, dinner date with my Hubs. A special gift in itself. 

After dinner, we went over to this outdoor shopping area and went into a few stores to browse for some early Christmas shopping. I picked up a  few things - success!

And now it's alsmost the end of the day, and I've just been going through all of the correspondence I've received all day via emails and text messages and Facebook messages. I am feeling the love!!

I was born in Illinois. I then went to college in Indiana. Then I moved to Nebraska for about eight years and have been in Texas for four years. I told Hubby at dinner that I heard from so many people today, from all chapters/states and stages of my life. How special is that.

I was curious to know who I heard from the most. I found it interesting to reflect on each of my chapters. And being a list-making nerd that I am, I broke down my stages into three groups - Bloomington, Indy/Omaha and Austin. Then I put a tally for all the people I heard from. And not predictable at all, it was actually extremely even among each of those groups. That surprised me - in a really good way. It told me I've made strong connections throughout each of my paths in life - pretty cool!

So with that, I'll end with the only pictures I took today. I was sweaty. It was taken at lunch at the grade school. But I did manage to get a couple photos with my best gifts. 

Thanks to all for making 38 Special! 

Jingle Seven

I'm a little achy today....but in a good way. The Hubby and I did a neighborhood Christmas lights run last night. I have to say, I've never lived in or seen a neighborhood that puts out as many Christmas lights as our neighborhood does. It's pretty spectacular to drive around - or in our case, run around. 

We joined about a dozen other people for the run. There were options, though. There was a two mile walk route, a four mile run route and a seven mile run route. After my big year of running in 2010, this year has been very low on the running map. I did one race all year back in March. I might go out twice a week - but that's a stretch. It's not that I'm not interested; I guess I just took a break. I hit the peak with my half marathon and wasn't sure where to go from there. 

So the longest run I have done in over a year was six miles - and that was back in March. Most runs these days are around three - max! Last night The Hubs and I went for the seven mile route. I was agreeable to this - but doubtful I would do the whole thing. I felt no pressure,though. It wasn't a race. I thought, well, we have a sitter, we have all night. If I run a bit, walk a bit, we'll finish eventually. We ended up doing it in one hour and ten minutes. I was good with that! I really couldn't believe how good I felt. I know I was keeping Hubby back with my new, slower pace - but I was glad to have his company. 

There's something to running at night. I only wish I felt safe enough to do it on my own - because I feel so much better running at night. It's probably all psychological - usually is. But running around the neighborhood, at night, looking at Christmas lights - yeah, that was fun! 

So like I said, today I'm a wee bit stiff - but kind of feeling like I want to find a new race! Hmmmm.

Fun Run

Sydney had a fun run at her school tonight. The girls and I did the run....and it was fun! :)

 

Oops, I Did it Again

So I did it again - I let too much time go by and now I'm catching up, sharing all of the goods we've done over the past few days.  For the sake of time, I'm simply doing a bullet list tonight. Hey, I love lists...there's nothing wrong with a list. :) And to make up for the list, see a couple photos at the end! Cheers!

• Last Thursday, Sydney got to visit her grade school for next year. They had a cookie/book day. She got to get a cookie, buy a milk in the cafeteria and have the snack where she'll be dining for lunch five  days a week next year. After the snack, we went to her library for a story time. It is a big school, and it's hard to imagine that in just a few short months, it'll be time for Kindergarten.
• On Friday, we had family movie night and went to see Disney African Cats. It definitely had a mother/protect thy family spin to it - but I was sobbing, people. It was so sweet and so well done and so moving. I highly recommend seeing the flick
• Saturday night, we opened our pool and had a cookout. Some friends came over for splashing and burgers. The pool is still quite chilly. My toe got wet - but that was all. However, it was a gorgeous weekend - all weekend long. We couldn't resist getting the season going.
• Today, Sunday, we had to continue with the weather spoiling. We got up and went for a family hike. Then after lunch we went to the gym pool to work on Sydney's swimming skills. After that, the kids were hungry, so we had to have barbeque, right? We went to Rudy's, our favorite local 'cue. The girls had two sandwiches - and of course some Big Red soda. If we live in Texas, we still love our Big Red!

Now home, the girls are out, even before the sun went down. After many hectic and some out of town weekends lately, it was nice to be home and do a lot of fun things! Hope your weekened was also enjoyable!

Sydney at her school for next year, enjoying a cookie in the big cafeteria.

 
Cheekers and some Big Red.

 

Cap 10

Did my first "big" race since the last "big" race last fall. With injury after injury, I took a much needed time-out. Today's race was a 10K. It was a great day - cool, overcast and a crowd of over 30,000 people! I joined a friend for the run. We were great pace partners. We started off slow, partially due to our choice and partially due to the crowds. We picked it up mid-way and then sprinted to the finish. It was a rare sprint finish for me. I'm usually done, especially after 6 miles. I'm not sure what is next on the race schedule, nothing planned. That's OK. I was just glad to get out there and get through it and feel good.

 

13.1 - Done!

It's been a whirlwind of a week for me. A week ago, I was convinced that the event I have been sweating my you know what off for all summer was not going to happen. I was very down about not being able to run this race. I know I said before, but a year ago I never believed I could run a mile, let alone a half-marathon. I was just never the type. I have, however, had a half-marathon on my bucket list for years. I think I set that goal in the early dating years with my Hubby. He does the marathon thing...I think I picked a 1/2 to impress. For whatever reason, this has been the year I decided to make things happen.

So months of training, learning, sweating and fighting paid off - and today I completed my race #12 of the year. It was a perfect overcast, in the 50s weather day. Despite the knee pain issue I have been dealing with, today my problem was leg juice. I have not run over 4 miles in over a month - due to my injuries. My conditioning definitely decreased during this period of time where I nursed my wounds. It was all I could do mentally to tell my legs to just get there! And that they did... My race time was 2 hours and 6 minutes. Today, a pretty good finale to my 12 races for the year goal!

Now what?!

 

Thank you to my cheerleaders today - Hubby and girls, it was so great to see your smiling faces twice along the way!! 

My Weak Butt

All of this focus on my abs all of these years, and it appears I should have been focusing on my butt!

I have spent most of this week bouncing from one doctor office to another - and let me just say I have the most brilliant two-year old on the planet - hands down! Cheekers has been so patient this week in waiting rooms, patient rooms and therapy rooms as Mommy has been trying to fix her boo-boos.

Turns out my aches and pains as my running has progressed over this year is really just a matter of needing to strengthen up my muscles a bit. I was given the diagnosis of runner's knee, but after spending some time at the physical therapist, I have learned a lot about the muscles, how they work and how they make parts of our body hurt if they are not strong or more importantly stretched.

It's not so much that my butt is weak - but my hip muscles next to my gluteus a'maximus (I say with a British accent - to make it sound a little fancier). It seems as if pregnancy and giving birth can stretch out the old hips a bit - really??!

My hip muscles have been stretched and then not really properly put back together. This then creates the hips to sway more back and forth when running, which has caused my IT band to attach itself to my quadricep muscles - therefore pulling on my knees. Interesting, no?!

So I have been a stretching machine this week. Too bad I haven't been stretchin' out the ole hips a little longer....because Mommy's time is now up!

In less than 24 hours is the grand finale to my year long goal of 12 running races. The family is packed and ready to hit it to San Antonio. I am nervous and excited all in one. Last January, when I barely made it through a 5k for race number 1, I know my crystal ball did not see this race all the way here in November. But here it is, and there is no turning back.

My 36th birthday is Monday, the day after my race - and I plan to make every second of year 35 count!

So, send your happy hip, knee, feet and butt vibes to me this weekend. I will definitely appreciate it!