Recap of weekend

We spent the weekend at home cleaning sorting small clothes to get rid of, And watching movies. Was so nice. Then Sunday we went up to the cities to exchange my running shoes for a different kind. Tonight I am meeting a potential daycare for Athena and Corbin. Haley has Girl Scouts.

Honeymoon weekend-kinda

Steve and I used our wedding gift from my dad this last weekend. We went up to the cities and left the kids with him over night. We went to about 5 different running stores and tried on a ton of different running shoes. We ate at a vegetarian sushi place for lunch. After shoe shopping we did a little more general shopping then checked into the hotel about 9pm! We stayed at the depot. Very nice hotel. Had two separate bedrooms and a huge living and kitchen room. Loved it so perfect. We had some wine and dessert down In the bad area. So peaceful. Ate breakfast at a bitch wood cafe all organic whole foods cafe so nice! We were home by noonish and then took the kids to Mankato to play a bit. Weekend went super fast but it was so fun to get away for even a little bit. We are most excited to start using our new shoes!

Weekend together

This last weekend Steve and I spent doing taxes (not fun. We made it fun with laughing together:) ) and delivering flyers around for daycare which apparently we can't do anymore since the post office called me and complained about it lol.we drank coffee and talked and just watched tv about weird documentaries lol. Really cool couple we are.for sure.haley was at a get away for Girl Scouts then spent the night at her fathers. Sunday we went to Mankato and went swimming at the YMCA and then came home. Read some books and went to bed. Next weekend we are using my dads wedding gift and staying at the depot hotel and ice rink. Going to buy new workout gear too. Can't wait!!

I've been so busy posting my marathon journey experiences on my other blog that sometimes I forget to post a journal blog. This week has been busy with running and meal prepping. Nothing out of the ordinary. Steve worked a ton of hours this week and were kid free this weekend so really looking forward to spending time together. We will be putting up daycare flyers around new Ulm as well as finishing up our taxes. That will pretty much eat up our entire weekend! Running on the track tomorrow. Exciting!

This weekend Haley celebrated her birthday with having about 5 friends come over and play and stay overnight. They had pizza and ice cream. They had a wonderful time it was nice to see her happy! Sunday, we took the kids to Mankato to play at the bookstore and then to get ice cream. When we left in the morning the snow wasn't bad and roads were fine! On our drive home we got stuck in the middle of the blizzard and had to drive about 10 mph. So scary I could hardly are the white lines and at times couldn't see anything at all. We almost got hit head on from another vehicle doing 30 mph and driving in my lane. So scary and I am so thankful to have made it safely home!!! We made and ate taco in a bag as a family and all hung out. Wonderful weekend with the family. Today is Haley's 9th birthday and we are having a great day together just lounging around since we celebrated this weekend. Her grandparents are coming to give her their gifts later.

Arizona thoughts

I've been looking at Arizona for a place the family can move to. After telling Steve about my idea he at first wasn't on board but really thinking about it he has considered it. I would love for this to happen but I don't have high hopes for it.it would be tough to split up the family like that with not having Athena and Corbin with us for the entire year except summers. It's still up in the air right now as a lot of things would have to happen first. As long as Steve and I have each other I guess it doesn't matter where we are and once the kids are older maybe then we can. I just feel this small town isn't for me I need to succeed and grow and here I feel stuck.

What I've learned from running

Be disciplined! I cannot remember the last time I stuck to a schedule like this. I knew that if I skipped even one long weekend run, my chances of finishing the half marathon would be decreased. Endurance- i can run 13.1 miles. Did not see that coming at all!!!! There will be good runs & bad runs. Some runs were easier than others – 7 miles was exhausting, 8 and 9 miles were surprisingly easy. I prayed on my 11 miler, and ultimately my 13.1 would land on a good day! – luckily they did. Don’t Judge a Run by the First Mile.. Well, I should say first 3 because my first couple always suck and are tough(yes even after knowing I can run 13.1, my 3 miles are still "tough"– The first couple miles of most of my runs were honestly miserable – tight legs, cold arms, sore feet, tired eyes, loose pony tail, headphones falling out,etc…. but it always improved. Sharing the experience with others. Running opens up a whole new community and people who run, love to talk about running. People who don’t run usually nod as their eyes glaze over. My family doesn't seem interested in the love I have to running lol. Sorry about that, non-running friends.I’m a pretty competitive person and running alone let’s me find my own pace and listen and respond to my body when it wants to speed up or slow down.  RunWith Others. I get my energy from being around others and pick up the pace when I run in a group. When I registered for my race I deliberately underestimated my pace to ensure I wasn’t starting out with people running significantly faster than me. I knew I needed a good pair of shoes. I never thought I’d consider running shoes among the favorites in my collection – but going to a running store and having a proper fitting was the best thing I’ve done for my running. Running is so much fun! I never EVER thought I would say that. Back in high school I used to look at the track team like they were crazy! I've hit a wall a couple times but I'm beginning to embrace the "pain" and use it to give me the energy I need. 

The new year came and went! Can't believe how fast 2013 went it was full of many special times! Can't wait to see what this year has in store for our family. I had a nike jawbone to track my steps and you can enter food you ate and it even tracks your amount of sleep/deep sleep. I found out I actually sleep fairly decent compared to Steve. I get between 4-5 hours of deep sleep compared to Steve's 1-3 hours!! We ended up returning the bands because we had a pretty good feel at how many steps we took per day and how we slept. We bought a weight bench now just need to buy some weights. It's too cold to put them in the garage and I would love to turn a bedroom into a workout room. The girls are a little old to share a room though. Maybe we need a new house with more rooms lol. I have been down on myself about my weight recently because I am now weighing the exact same weight as when I really started focusing and dedicating myself to the gym. I really need to tell myself it's just the number and to go off how my clothes fit instead. I may weigh the same, my muscles are more toned and I eat clean (most the time) and I really take working out serious. My clothes are too big now so I need to remember that the scale isn't always right. We are buying a body mirror and I will be taking daily (selfies!) body pictures to track my progress.