Running goals for 2012

Just because I need it in writing to hold myself accountable I thought I'd better post some goals.

Last year I logged 193.61 miles into my Nike+ app. I know I actually ran more than that since I don't always use the app while I am on the treadmill. I am going to guess that I actually logged about 250 miles in 2011.

I'm going to go for a 20% increase for 2012 which, if I did the math correct, puts me at a goal of 300 miles.

Another goal for 2012 is to run a half marathon. That is 13.1 miles. That is an overwhelming thought for me during these cold winter months but I think it's doable come spring or summer.

Finally, to overcome my "it's to cold outside to run outside" attitude my last running goal is to not let more than 7 days go by without getting a minimum of a 30 minute run in outside.

Feel free to hold me accountable these, please.

What are your goals for 2012 running or other?

Perseverance

Last March the leader of our women's ministry asked a lady at our church, Marie, who teaches aerobic classes if she would consider holding a class for the women at our church. She said yes and she also used it as a giving ministry for herself and donates part of money to mission trips to Haiti. It is still going and has become very popular. We meet on Mondays and Thursdays for an hour of kickboxing/bootcamp class.

Marie has done a great job of motivating us to get healthy. One thing that she does that I really enjoy is she will introduce us to something new and then re-visit it a couple of weeks later. I like this because you get to see how much stronger you are getting.

One of these is planks. Do you know what a plank is? It is like a push-up but you are on your elbows and you just hold the position. It sounds easy. Try it. It is really hard! It is excellent for building your core. When we started the class most of the women, me included, struggled holding the plank for even 15 secs.

As I started getting stronger I seen something about "plank wars" on Twitter. You challenge people to see who can hold a plank longer. Here is a picture from June of us having a plank war on the deck.


At that time I still had to really work to hold it for a minute. Imagine my surprise when I timed myself the other day and made it to...

2 whole minutes! It just shows what perseverance can gain you. I'm having so many "God moments" and lessons through the training I have been in.

"As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy." -James 5:11

Pinterest

Have you heard of Pinterest?

Are you on it?

Are you addicted too?

I introduced my daughters to it and they love it to. It has provided a lot of entertainment and discussion for us. The latest of which involved our poor dog. We ran across this picture of the "Most patient dog in the world"...

Source: chubaandcompany.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

So of course we had to see if our sweet Allie was as patient...

Anna getting it started.

Kaylyn figuring out how to get the bones under her lips.

Allie trying to lick the bones. TOO FUNNY!

She is waiting patiently to be done and yes, drooling.

If you aren't on yet and you need an invite just holler.

One year Anniversary

Do you remember this post "My first 5k"? Today I ran this same race again. Last year I couldn't even run the entire time. This year was a different story. Not only did I run the entire race I hit my goal of running it under 40min. I haven't seen the official time yet but I think it will be around 38:13. I am already planning on running it again next year and have set my goal at 32 min. It's time to "train my weaknesses" which for me is speed. Stadium stairs and hill work here I come!

Here is my running buddy Karen and I after the race. We started our "running journeys" together with this 5k last year and continue to spur each other on. She placed 3rd in our age division today! Obviously speed is not a weakness for her. We both want to do a 1/2 marathon. We are looking into one for next April. Feel free to start praying for me now.


This run was especially fun because we ran it with a group of ladies from our church's women's ministry. Be sure to check out Kim's post about running the race with her daughter.

Wordless Wednesday - One Happy Senior!

They killed the suspense by adding "Admitted Student Information" on the outside of the acceptance letter. But they sure made Anna happy.

See other Wordless Wednesday participants at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Resourseful

Doesn't everyone use their school issued laptop as a light box?

Busy weekend

The weekend started with our MS youth group participating in a 30 hr Famine. If you are not familiar with that the kids get pledges to go 30 hours without eating and the monies raised get sent to World Vision to help feed hungry kids. We plan a lot of fun activities to keep the kids busy while they aren't eating. The picture below is of broom ball at a local ice rink that we went to Friday night.


On Saturday we split the kids up and went through the local neighborhoods on a can/food drive for a local organization named Love INC. That cares for people right here in our community.

Mark called Saturday afternoon to let me know he had shot a deer. He had been up north hunting from Friday until Sunday morning. Yeah for success!

Sunday after church we celebrated Kaylyn's birthday with my family.


My parents requested a picture of Emily to go with the other school pictures of their grand kids so my sister had asked me if I could take one for them. So after a lot of pictures like the one below from an unwilling Emily...


We did finally get one that I believe is frame worthy.

After the birthday party we had hurry off to a soccer game for Anna. She played great! The game ended in a 1-1 tie. She is #39.


Funny story... Mark was sleep deprived from hunting and I was from the 30 hour famine so we were both really tired Sunday. Anna has to be to the soccer field 30 minutes early. When we got there we got a parking spot right in front of the field. We decided to just wait in the car. Well we both FELL ASLEEP in the car and woke up with the game 10 minutes into it. Opps!

Thankful Thurday - Sisters

I have 2 sisters and I am so thankful for the both of them.

This is my sister Jodi and her husband Randy.
It just happens to be Jodi's birthday today.
Happy Birthday Jodi!

And this is my sister Julie and her husband Leo along with their daughter Emily.

What are you thankful for today?

For more "Thankful Thursday" posts go to Spiritually Unequal Marriage.

Wordless Wednesday - Emily Faces

Emily was showing Libby and I her "different faces and smiles". Oh I do love this little blessing!

See other Wordless Wednesday participants at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Courageous

My husband leads a Men's group at church and he put out an invitation to the group to join us with their wives Saturday night to see the movie Courageous. Four couples showed up to watch the movie with us. It was such a great movie. I highly recommend it but don't forget to bring tissues.

Milestones

Kaylyn's 16th birthday is coming up at the end of the month. She has been bugging me to have a birthday party that weekend. We have always celebrated birthdays with family and so have never really done the birthday party with friends for any of our kids. Since it was her 16th I did desire to make it extra special for her but it is impossible to keep anything from Kaylyn. She is known for asking a million questions and badgering you like crazy for the answers.
So a couple of weeks ago I asked the mothers of her closest friends if their daughter's would be free Friday night to come to a SURPRISE birthday party/sleepover for Kaylyn. They were all available so I started my planning. I made plans for the rest of the family to be out of the house. Mark took Anna up north hunting and Libby went home with my sister when she picked up Emily from me. The nice thing is since we have never done birthday parties I knew there would be no grand expectations to live up to. That made it much easier. We kept it a secret from her girlfriends until after youth group this past Wednesday so that only gave them 2 days to keep the secret.

It was a TOTAL surprise to Kaylyn and she loved every minute of it.



Here is the house decorated waiting for her friend to bring her home after school. I had picked up the other friends so they were waiting inside and ran out the minute they pulled into the driveway.


Here they are opening gifts. The one she is opening in the picture was really neat. It was 16 things that stand for Kaylyn. Kendra also filled out a little book explaining the meaning of each item.

Her is Kaylyn wearing part of the gift. This gift was "because Kaylyn is always silly". She was told she had to wear the crown the entire time. She even wore it out to the restaurant. The waitress thought we might be having a bachelorette party! Yikes! No they are 16!

Here are the girls ready to head out to dinner.

Here are the girls getting in a little shopping after dinner.

Here they are back home making caramel apples and decorating cupcakes. Kaylyn had asked me a couple of weeks ago, when Mark brought home a bushel of apples, if we could make some. I stored that in my "good idea for the party" list.

And here is the birthday girl with her cupcake.

Saturday morning I made them a big breakfast including Kaylyn's favorite... bacon. Then I dropped them off at the mall (with some cash of course) for a couple hours while Mark, Libby, and I grabbed some lunch and watched the MSU vs. Michigan game. Then I picked up the girls and took them to Cold Stone Creamery before coming home and letting them hang out for a little while longer.

I think it was as much fun for me seeing how excited Kaylyn got as it was for her living it.
Great memories!

Wordless Wednesday - Not on my watch!

I'm glad she did this with her mother and not her Aunt Jen.
Note to self: don't take my eyes off Emily while I'm taking care of her.

See other Wordless Wednesday participants at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Tough and Pretty!

I can't believe it is another Senior Year in our house. My oldest daughter will be saying goodbye to HS and hello to college. I have had so much fun watching her grow and mature. She is one determined young lady and when she sets her sights on something she gives it all she's got.


She had a soccer game Saturday. Oh boy was it hot but that didn't keep her from giving it her all. Here she is getting ready to give the soccer ball a header.


Here she is helping to defend the goal from a corner kick.


Here she is... okay here she pretty much just looks confused but then again so does the referee.


And here she is all prettied up ready to head off to her last Homecoming dance. Doesn't she clean up well?

Perspective

My daughter's and I tried our hand at square foot gardening this year. We had much success in some things and it was a learning year in others. One thing that we had been told and then forgot when we planted was to not have melons near squash/cucumbers/zucchini. Yesterday we harvested the only two watermelons that we got.


They look pretty don't they? Well the next picture will give you a little "perspective" on how they really looked...


Oh yes we were laughing. But Libby still cut them open and ate the larger one and said it tasted really good. But the smaller one smelled peculiar almost like... cucumbers. I told the girls next year we will have to work a little harder on placement and giving the gardens a little more consistent TLC.

{Top Ten Tuesday} Fall Favorites

In no particular order...

1.football

2.colors

3.school
*because I have a chance to regain control of my house*

4.apples
*however I have to be careful since I'm allergic to some*

5.pumpkin everything

6.chai

7.family night at church
*especially when Libby sings*

8.snuggling up and knitting

9.bible study

10.crock pot cooking

I think fall might be my favorite season. How about you? What do you enjoy most about fall?