Three Things Thursday

1.  We have had a relaxing vacation week.  Ben had a basketball tournament, Siri has been to the barn and the little kids have played with their toys.  We have spent time with our friends and are now about to take down the tree and speed into 2012.  While I have enjoyed the week, I will be glad when they are all back in school and I am back on my schedule.

2.  I spent the morning on the computer writing down races in my calendar.  Some I am signed up for and some are just on my radar.  I have quite a few Half's on the list and a couple of 10k's and 5 K's.  My first race is the 1st Run 10K on January 1 in Lowell, MA.  I am excited to open the year with a 10K.  It is just what I need to get my running juices flowing.  I am going with 5 running besties.  Last year we did a 10K in Salsbury, MA which I am not going to name because it stunk.  This one is very well run and we are all excited.

3.  I also have spent a lot of the morning thinking about my goals for 2012.  I would love to run a sub 1:50 half marathon this year.  I know that in order to do that I need to drop a couple of pounds.  The last couple of months have not been great eating months for me.  I am hoping to start the year off right by keeping a food journal.  I have tried this before and it doesn't always work.  Maybe this will be the year that it does.

The Day Before Christmas Eve

I know, I have been a really bad blogger.  For some reason this holiday has made it impossible to get out of my own way.  I had one home sick for the week and a list a mile long so my computer took a back seat.

Last night we set out to wrap all of the kids presents.  We have an entire system.  Everyone gets a certain wrapping paper.  We wrap, listen to music and then make sure everything seems even.  I am sure that someone is going to complain.  We really tried to stay on a budget this year.  With 4 kids it can be hard, but I think that we managed and everyone got some nice things.  (Even the dog, the cats and the horse).

My running suffered a bit this week, but that is okay.  I am letting it be okay.  (Can you tell it really isn't okay).  Between a sick child, Christmas and my own fun foolishness on Monday night.  (Beer and wine don't mix).  I just let the running go.  I know I am running today and tomorrow and sometimes I meet my friend on Christmas.  Vacation week will have me on my treadmill and out for early mornings, but that is okay.  Back on the February training plan.

I will leave you with a picture of Nelly, our crazy Corgi.  Last night while we were wrapping presents we found a Santa suit that we had bought for her.  (I know, don't judge).  Well we put it on her and she kept it on long enough for us to take a picture.

I know, we have totally lost it.  Merry, Merry everyone!!

Running, Running, Running

We are up and running here.  Running to Christmas, running on the roads and running to various sporting and school events that 4 kids pile up.  My goal this week is to just keep up and make it to Sunday.  (I thought that it was make it until Saturday and then I realized we have a flag football double header and a cookie swap.)  I know that I am going to be up before 5 most mornings if I want to get my run in.  That is okay.  Sometimes I feel better if I am done and feel like I can conquer the day.

I also went out on a limb this week and sent an email to the owner of our local running store.  I let him know that I was interested in working at his store if he had any openings.  I never heard back from him which has me kind of bummed out.  My husband said he was proud of me for even putting myself out like that.  Believe me that is not my usual MO.  Now of course I am in that weird thought process that he would never hire me, I will never be able to go into his store again and why would I do something so crazy?

I guess what it comes down to is that I am ready to have a job, but I want to do something that I like.  I love running gear/stuff.  I love helping people shop for gear/stuff and I really like my local running store.  Fingers crossed that maybe I hear something from him even if it is a kind no thank you.

The Tree is Up

We (the 4 kids) decorated the Christmas Tree last night.  As you can see the ornaments all seem to be in one area.  That would be from the kids fighting over the step stool in front of the tree.  Usually by now I have rearranged and fixed the tree to my specifications, but I have one home sick again today and he seems to be in my hip pocket.
Decorating the Christmas tree with four kids, a dog and 2 cats can be a little bit of a trick.  T puts on the lights.  I sat on the couch and facilitated the job.  I know he really appreciated it.  I like the lights tucked in the tree so they look like they are illuminating from the inside.  T doesn't quite feel that way and just wants to get them up.  While he was putting the lights on everyone was pulling ornaments out of the box, trying to hang them and then of course one broke.  The one that broke....Ben's from Disney.  Who broke it?  Siri. Let's just say Wrestlemania broke out in the living room.
Every year I have a vision on eating cookies, decorating the tree, talking about how the home made ornaments.  Every year it turns into how fast can we get the tree up and then put everyone to bed.  Then I start questioning Trav about why we didn't get the tree on Saturday?  Maybe we should get a fake tree and we could put it up whenever we wanted?  You know the second guessing that occurs about everything around Christmas.
Oh yeah and one more thing.  Seriously Taylor Swift?  Why would you charge $60 for perfume that is probably being worn by a bunch of 6th graders?  And why is that the first thing on Siri's Christmas list?

Three Things Thursday

1.  My training plan for Half at the Hamptons started this week.  We are just going to follow the Hal Higdon intermediate plan for this race.  It is a simple, doable plan and we always seem to do well with it.

2.  Both boys are home sick today.  Their cough(s) kept me up the entire night.  I have one that is asthmatic so I think that he bough himself a trip to the doctor this morning.  It seems like all of the kids in our area are sick.  One class had nine kids out the other day.  Selfishly I need them to go to school so that I can get my Christmas stuff done.

3.  I am going to a running group on Saturday morning at our local running store.  Every Saturday morning they do a run through Mine's Falls in Nashua.  It is supposed to be beautiful and it is something different.  I have never been to a running group before so I am excited to check it out.