R&R

A week out from my second half marathon of the season and I am feeling great. Much of my focus this week has been on rest and recovery, though I haven't been as sore as I felt after the 3M Half Marathon last month. Monday Aurora and I got pedicures.

Tuesday I did a light jog and park workout, Wednesday was lunchtime yoga, Thursday I was super busy at work and barely got up from my desk, and last night was Girl Scout movie night. A few parents hung out and had wine and pizza while the girls played and watched Troop Beverly Hills.

This morning I found a yoga class about 1/3 mile from our house. I walked over and we did yoga on a beautiful rooftop deck. It was awesome! When I came home I noticed my Valentine's flowers (which I got free from the checker at HEB) had all bloomed.

After all this relaxing girl time, I'll be spending the rest of the weekend focusing on my boy (read: Aurora's sleeping over at a friends house). More to come. Namaste!

Love Austin Run Austin

We have had a very sweet week filled with Valentine's projects, cards, parties, chocolates, and ANOTHER HALF MARATHON!

For the second year in a row, I spent Valentine's Day morning running 13.1 miles in beautiful downtown Austin, Texas. I love running this town.

Once again, I ran as a part of Team LIVESTRONG and got to go to a team brunch with old friends and colleagues. I also scheduled a 10-minute massage at the finish line, and now that I've completed 3 half marathons, I bought myself a display for my medals.

Aurora helped pick out the saying. Every journey begins with a single step. It's not a super big display and I'm definitely planning on filling it to capacity! Aurora has a couple little medals from various events she's done but this one is reserved for half marathon medals only. I actually got an email from Valley View this week with photos from a Fun Run the school put on earlier this year. Here's our little girl trotting along with her teachers.

I have another Half Marathon coming up, and later in the year Aurora and I will be doing a 5k along with a few friends! We have the day off tomorrow and are planning on getting pedicures and snuggling. I don't get a lot of time with just my girl these days so we're both looking forward to it!

I ♥ us

This weekend we took a walk around Bee Cave Sculpture Park and I ran 8-miles while Aurora sold Girl Scout cookies at her very first cookie booth. The girls did great!

We spent an afternoon at Jump Wild, bouncing and running around at an awesome birthday party. Aurora wore her jumpsuit. I wish I had, too - it was quite a workout!

Clark was in the preschool minority with his prediction that the Broncos would win. Smart kid! We spent the first half of the Super Bowl food shopping without crowds, as usual.

We also spent some time this weekend working on the kid's Valentine's and I must say, Aurora is one sweet little girl... 

Open House

Today Valley View held an Open House for the entire school. They had a food truck, a huge bake sale, and every classroom, teacher, and activity was open and available. Aurora has wonderful teachers and second grade truly is the perfect combination of fun and learning. We got to talk to her new music teacher and play games in the GT classroom, but more than anything this ended up being an opportunity for Aurora to show Clark her classrooms and he loved every minute of it!

He was so excited to sit in his big sister's chair

There were experiments and handmade instruments at every table

Aurora made this game in GT; Dog vs. Cat

I learned that while she won't be able to play an instrument until Middle School, she can join the percussion ensemble or choir as early as next year. In GT (Gifted & Talented) they've been focusing on gaming strategy, which includes lessons in blocking your opponents from winning (think, tic-tac-toe style games) and making up their own games! She's really enjoying the program and I'm so happy that she got in. 

Today Aurora also joined the "lunch bunch," which (I think) must be the counseling office's way of getting shy or mean kids to form positive friendships. Aurora just wants to make friends with everybody so she opted in. It made me realize how much she's just like me. I've been spending a lot of energy these last few months trying to find groups and committees to join at my new job. I've found a regular workout group, joined the Green Team, and I opt in to every training, lunch & learn, and networking opportunity presented. That is clearly not the norm at the County. The moment I saw Aurora's eyes light up at the idea of joining the percussion ensemble, I saw myself in her in a way that I'd never really noticed before. 

Oh, and then there was this:

... which seems to have confirmed for Julian that Aurora is definitely related to his family as well. Yes indeed. What an awesome Open House! 

Going, Going, Gone!

It should be no surprise to anybody that we have been going, going, going all weekend. Yesterday Aurora's Girl Scout troop went on a hike at Commons Ford Park, and while we've been to that park before, we'd never done this hike. We brought the boys along because Clark was such a good little hiker at the Wild Basin Preserve, but this was a much more intense hike. It started out easy enough, but by the end we'd had injuries, arguments, treacherous hills and rocks, people who turned around, and a firm talking to about how Girl Scouts stick together! Our family emerged from the wilderness unscathed and the girls each got a well earned hiking badge.

Afterwards, Clark complained that he was hot and sweaty and needed ice cream, which everybody agreed was a great idea! Aurora's really enjoying Girl Scouts this year. After going back to our cookie mom three times, we decided that we've sold enough cookies. Our stash at home is GONE! Aurora thanked her customers, we turned in our money, and then we got word that next weekend she gets to man a booth outside of Randall's! That should be fun. If you missed out or don't live in the area, you can still order online and have them shipped directly to you.

Today we wanted to see Kung Fu Panda 3 and I needed to get a long run in, so I decided to run 9.5 miles to the movie theater and have the family meet me there. I'm not sure that sitting still in the theater for 2-hours eating popcorn was the most ideal post-run recovery plan, but it worked out just fine.

After lunch (and a shower), it was time to run errands. We took a trip to the library and did some food shopping before Aurora and Clark both got haircuts. Don't they look great!

I gave Chuck a haircut when we got home and he looks great too. I'm about to get up and make dinner, but I must admit I'm really enjoying these peaceful moments just sitting and blogging. All this going makes for one tired mama!

Goal Setting

This week has been intense. Wednesday marked the beginning of our first Girl Scout cookie season. We started with a very modest order, not realizing that the average customer would take 4-8 boxes!!! After less than a week, we've had to go back to the cookie mom twice for more. Our original goal was 36 boxes and we'll be selling more than double that. Pretty cool! The Girl Scout cookie program was designed to help girls develop skills that they will use throughout their lives:

1. Goal Setting
2. Decision Making
3. Money Management
4. People Skills
5. Business Ethics

Aurora is definitely learning 3 and 5, while I'm focusing more on 1 and 2 at this point. It's also a pretty lucrative fundraiser for the Girl Scouts!

I am no stranger to fundraising or goal setting. Last year I set a goal to complete my first half marathon, and today I ran my second - a full 8 minutes faster! Honestly, I haven't trained as well this year, but it was a fast course and my friend Melissa pulled me through those last few miles. We finished right at 2:05, which was my goal time. It was hard, but awesome.

I'm also registered to do the Austin Half Marathon again, which is just a few weeks away. I'll have to keep training to get through it in last year's time, as it's a much hillier course. Melissa will be there, too - but she'll be running the full! She was amazing today and I know she's going to do great. I think I'll stick with this distance for now...

Taking a Hike

I wish every weekend was a 3-day weekend. Clark does too, but I must say we prefer to spend our time in very different ways. I enjoy cooking, reading, and getting out for a long run, while he'd prefer to spend every available minute on the iPad. Luckily, those activities are often compatible! I mean, he'd rather be sitting on my lap, but the couch is fine. These days his favorite activity on the iPad is watching youtube videos of Transformers. Not the cartoons - the actual plastic toys, getting opened and being transformed. Seriously. Luckily, after a little bit of screen time he's usually happy to take a break and get out for some adventure. This weekend I told the kids we should go hiking, which they immediately decided should include camping and picnicking. I assured them it was too cold to camp outside, but I thought of a pretty good idea for a picnic...

Picnic at Rudy's BBQ!

Waterfall at Wild Basin Preserve.

How sweet are these two?

Enjoying the view.

"Look at me and smile!"

Warming their frozen fingers.

A regular 4-day workweek would be pretty awesome, too. Actually, my job is getting more interesting and all things considered (my new boss, my workout group, and the state of affairs at my previous place of employment), I would say it's all working out just fine. Especially considering all the 3-day weekends. The best thing about this 3-day weekend was that it corresponded with my mom's birthday!!! I think she would've enjoyed taking that hike - or at least the fire and the cake we would've baked her afterwards! But it looks like she's enjoying her flowers and fuzzy bear just as much.

Eating and Running

This weekend Aurora had yet another sleepover. Presley was celebrating her 8th birthday and after the party, she asked if Aurora could spend the night. How could we refuse? And how on earth are the girls turning 8 this year!?!?! Presley's mom texted me this picture and said they were having so much fun running around and playing, it was hard to get them to stop to eat!

Chuck and I decided to take Clark out to dinner at a new Mexican restaurant in Lakeway. It was really good! And really different with just one kiddo. He brought one of his new Rescue Bots along and insisted on sitting in a high chair, even though there was plenty of room in the booth.

And yes, he wore his hoodie like that pretty much all weekend. It was sunny but very cold - perfect weather for running. I did get a long run in on Saturday morning, which was one mile longer and one minute per mile faster than last weekend's run - which means I went a mile further than last weekend in the exact same amount of time. And yes, that amount of time was 1 hour and 39 minutes, which is a long time to be running at any pace!

I've decided I'm going to do two half marathons this year. Maybe three. Now that I've been running for over a year, the longer distances are coming more easily and I'm enjoying these training runs quite a bit. One awesome thing about doing a long run is that afterwards you can sit around and eat for the rest of the day - heck, for the rest of the weekend! Today I made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, we took Clark, Aurora and Presley to the Peanuts Movie (which was adorable) and ate way too much popcorn before lunch at Burger King, then had a big dinner with ice cream for dessert. I felt like the Very Hungry Caterpillar eating my way through the weekend! If we win the Powerball, I think I'll spend a majority of my time eating and running. For now, I'd better get ready for another busy week of working and shuttling kids to and from school.

BWF's

This morning Kim Barnett texted just to say she misses me. Then this picture popped up in my Facebook feed from 6-years ago, another reminder of my BWF (best work friend) for so many years.

I don't think I ever took it for granted that I had such great friends at the Foundation, but life gets so hectic that it's hard for me to stay in touch once we go our separate ways. Luckily, many of my old BWF's are good at keeping in touch with me. My friend Anne is another, which is a VERY good thing because our daughters are besties, too! We met up for dinner Sunday evening and Aurora was greeted with "Best Friend" necklaces. She spent the night at Melody's house and they got to spend the whole day together Monday, which was a lifesaver because school was closed but Chuck and I both had to work. 

Work's been pretty slow these past few weeks, and without any BWF's at my new job (yet) the days can just drag on. Yesterday things finally picked up and I've actually been really busy! I've also started working out with a bunch of guys during my lunch breaks. Monday we ran a mile to the park, did 20 minutes of exercise and then jogged back. It was a beautiful day and so much fun. Oh, and we ended up in yesterday's paper!

Today we did a 30 minute workout video followed by a 20 minute yoga class. Also awesome. I don't think I can count the guys at Travis County as best work friends, but it's so nice to have a group to belong to. Tomorrow they're going out to play soccer, but I'm planning on having lunch with Chuck (my LP) now that we work within walking distance.

Full House

We've had a lot of Wadey's in the house this past week! My parents went back to Florida and Uncle Andrew joined Nancy and Zeland for the remainder of their visit. I went to work everyday but not before putting together a fun itinerary for the family. They went to the Austin Aquarium, the Nature and Science Center, the Library, Kirbey Lane, Burger King, and spent countless hours at home playing video games. We had dinner together each evening and on Wednesday we went to the Lakeway Trail of Lights afterwards.

The sleeping situation was a little tight as the family played musical beds between the foldout couch, Aurora's bed, and the little fold out cushions - but it worked out just fine.

I'm sure Nancy would love that I posted a picture of her sleeping! It's okay, she hasn't read my blog in months (maybe years). The AZ Wadey's went home yesterday and we had a quiet NYE. We went out to a nice dinner, watched some neighborhood fireworks out the window and turned in early. I was way too tired to stay up 'til midnight!!! Today we took down the Christmas decorations, did all the laundry, and just like that - it's 2016. I've been ramping up my half marathon training and I'm hoping my job gets more interesting in the year ahead. I'm thinking this might be the year we take Clark on a real vacation. Even when not much is happening, this life certainly is an adventure and I hope you've enjoyed following along. Happy New Year!