The Christmas spirit...

I'm definitely in the Christmas spirit. I love everything about Christmas. It seems to make Santa Clauses out of even the meanest grinches.

The "toys for tots" box at work is filled to the brim. One of my coworkers is arranging to pick up names from an angel tree so I told her to pick one for me this year. I always have such a hard time choosing one. Just one little angel. It seems like such an insignificant attempt at helping. I always want to help them all but it's just impossible. There are so many little angels on those trees and it breaks me heart.

My question is... how do you choose who to help? Where do you stop? There is so much need in the world and it always seems especially prevalent at Christmas. I was always such a lucky child at Christmas. There were always many gifts to open, a warm house where I waited for Santa Claus to visit, and a loving family surrounding me. There are so many kids out there in need.

The story of the starfish keeps coming to mind when I ask myself, "Does it really matter? I can't help them all. What can I do for those kids in need?"

The starfish story...

Once an old man was walking along a beach. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. Off in the distance he could see boy going back and forth between the surf's edge and and the beach. Back and forth this little boy went. As the man approached he could see that there were thousands of starfish stranded on the sand as the result of the tide.

The old man was stuck by the the apparent futility of the task. There were far too many starfish. Many of them were sure to perish. As he approached the little boy continued the task of picking up starfish one by one and throwing them into the surf.

As he came up to the boy he said, "You must be crazy. There are thousands of miles of beach covered with starfish. You can't possibly make a difference. What you are doing doesn't matter."

The little boy looked at the man. Then he bent down and picked up one more starfish and threw it back into the ocean. He turned back to the man and said, "It sure made a difference to that one!"

Please consider making a difference to someone this Christmas.

Yankee Candle giveaway!

Hannah at The New Black is hosting a Yankee candle giveaway! Her blog is so much fun and you will like it! I promise!

Cruise over to her blog here to enter!

Everyone loves Yankee candles!

13.1 miles. Check.

I ran in the St. Jude's half marathon race this weekend with about 8,000 other people! It was an incredible experience for me and also supported a great cause.

I went to Memphis with 3 great girls and we had a blast! We arrived at the convention center on Friday night and picked up our packets for the big race. There were 4 of us that signed up to run but my sister-in-law broke her foot a few weeks ago during an 8K run and my friend T had a nasty cold and felt awful. So that left me and A to run!

I was a little excited to be in Memphis at the St. Jude's expo! Can you tell?


On Saturday, we woke up to 28 degree weather.
The GPS died on the way to the race.
I ate two bites of a bagel and a sip of coffee before running 13.1 miles.
It was one of the best experiences of my life.

(Please excuse the photo quality because some of these are taken with my cell phone).

Here are a ton of runners lined up at the starting line! We're ready to run because it's SO cold just standing here!


Here's a pic around mile 3 as we were approaching Beale Street. My feet started to thaw around this point.


The atmosphere was incredible! Downtown Memphis is a fun place and it was such a moving experience to run past the St. Jude's hospital. The spectators were incredible- people were cheering for all of the runners and the course even went down Beale street which was very cool! It was so much fun to see all the crazy signs to support everyone. Some of my favorites said

"If it were easy, I would be doing it"
"Who needs toe nails anyway?"
"The carbo load was worth it, right?"
"Run Forrest, Run!!!"

I saw several Santa Clauses, elves, many different musicians, belly dancers, and even Big Foot along the course! It was such a great cause and I felt like a million bucks when I crossed that finish line... the excitement was quickly followed by feeling like my quads might explode... and then freezing... and then needing to lay down but drinking hot cocoa instead.

Being part of something to raise money for St. Jude's was just awesome. There is no other word to describe it. Seeing parents standing along the race course holding up signs that said "Thank you for helping my child" brought tears to my eyes. Runners had pictures of little bald children pinned on their backs. People ran "in memory of" children and "in honor of" children who are still fighting the hardest fight of their lives. I will always keep St. Jude's in mind for charity donations!

My goal time for finishing the race was 2 hours and 15 min and I made it to the finish line with less than a minute to spare! I have been working toward this goal for a year. A year ago I ran 0.1 miles and thought I would hurl. Now I can run 13.1 miles! You bet your a$$ I put one of those stickers on my car. It says "13.1" and it rocks.

We went out for a fun girls night in Memphis and I can't even remember the last time I had that much fun! We even saw Elvis. :-)

What does someone need to run their first half marathon?

So it's supposed to be 28 degrees on Saturday morning in Memphis for the St. Jude's Half Marathon. The degree to which this sucks is not even measurable on the scale of how bad things suck.

I'm packed and ready for the trip!

There will be layers and layers of clothing.

I may look like this kid...

Happy weekend to all!

Eccentric much? Why, yes... yes I am.

I thought it would be fun to confess write some things that make me a little crazy eccentric... Feel free to share your quirks too!

1. I love the travel or trial-size section at any store. I adore the teeny tiny bottles of various products. They are so cute and fun and of course I need them all.

2. I love holiday socks. Yes, I'm that cool. Usually they are hidden by boots or long pants... but it makes me happy just knowing that I am wearing fun socks. You can bet that I have on some hideous bright red socks with snowflakes all over them under my black boots today. Classy. ;-)

3. I make lists. To do lists, grocery lists, Christmas gifts to buy lists, but I have never made a list of all of my lists. Now that would be silly, right?

4. I talk to my dogs and I really think they understand me. They want to hear about my day when my husband isn't home. Really. They do.

5. I'm obsessed with any website that keeps track of things for me.

• For running: I use http://www.runningahead.com/ to log every run that I do with the time it took, the % incline, type of run, or weather conditions for an outside run, etc.
• For reading: I love http://www.goodreads.com/ to keep track of books that I have read.
• For budgeting: My credit card website has a tracking feature that makes a cool little pie chart showing where the money goes. I love charts, graphs, and tables.
• For travel: http://www.tripadvisor.com/ to pin a map with every city I've visited.

6. One of my favorite winter meals is tomato soup (made with milk) and a grilled cheese sandwich. Hey, I'm a simple sort of person, what can I say?

7. I will not check out a library book. They smell bad and I'm fearful that they may have been in the hands of a "bathroom reader." Ewwwww!!!!

8. My favorite number is 4. It's very even and balanced and logical. There are 4 sides and corners to a square, 4 legs on chairs, and I even think the number 4 is a little bit lucky. My first date with my husband was on the 4th of June. And... my birthday is in April (the 4th month).

9. I am the leftover queen. I realize how un-OCD this sounds but it comes from being a very poor student for a very long time. Did anyone else out there join student organizations in college in hopes of leaving a meeting with a leftover pizza?

10. I still have a knack for finding free food. I will sit through any seminar if there is food to eat. I will randomly listen to financial planners, biotech scientists, salespeople, career counselors, organic chemistry lectures... you name it. If you give me a couple of slices of pizza, I will give you my lunch hour. I will walk 10 blocks for a boxed sandwich lunch. Bargains make me incredibly happy.

Ok... now I have revealed my quirks! Do you do anything crazy too? Am I alone in my quirkiness?

The update... thanksgiving, Black Friday, half marathon, reading, Christmas prep

I hope everyone had a fabulous thanksgiving filled with wonderful food, good friends, and family!

I've been so busy that I have neglected my blog. So here's what I have been doing lately...

• We went to my sis-in-law's for a spectacular feast! She made a 24 lb turkey. Yes, it was the mega-turkey if I have ever seen one! The food was delicious, the company was great, and I got to play with my little niece. It was a great Thanksgiving!
• I got up at 3:30 AM last Friday to go Black Friday shopping. I fought the masses at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Target. I got some INCREDIBLE bargains! And this gal LOVES a bargain like a fat kid loves cake.
• My first half marathon is on Saturday! I did a long 12 mile run last Saturday and my knees have just stopped hurting (and it's Tuesday) so we'll see how this goes.
• I get to run with 2 great friends and we have 1 awesome cheerleader who has a broken foot (huge bummer). We had t-shirts printed for our team. We're "The Bookies" and "we've been bookin' it since 2009!"
• The half marathon is in Memphis and benefits St. Jude's! Contributing to a great cause and experiencing a fun city with wonderful friends will be an amazing way to spend a weekend. I hope we have time for Beale Street, Rendezvous ribs, & Graceland after the run.
• I finished Eat, Pray, Love and LOVED it. Read it. It will change your life. If you love to travel, you will really enjoy that book.
• We put up our Christmas tree already! We still have the same Christmas tree that we bought in 2004. It was $20 from Big Lots and we love it. It is the most pitiful Christmas tree that you can imagine but that baby is loaded down with lights, tinsel, and many many ornaments so it looks pretty good to me.
• I get sentimental every year when we put up the tree. Every ornament on our tree has some special meaning and a story behind it. There are birds with broken wings, a stuffed Ronald McDonald from when I was 2 years old, scotty dogs from my MIL (the hubs name is Scott), a chipped light house from Tybee Island, and bells with sequins (most are missing) and I would not trade any one of them for a set of fancy ornaments.

Do you have your Christmas tree up yet? Ho, ho, ho!

Happy Thanksgiving!

May your stuffing be tasty.

May your turkey be plump,

May your potatoes and gravy

Have never a lump.

May your yams be delicious

And your pies take the prize,

And may your Thanksgiving dinner

Stay off your thighs!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

There are no impossible goals.

Call me an optimist (or a little crazy) but I'm one of those people who believes you can do anything if you really want it bad enough. If you put in the effort, you will achieve your goal. Sure, there are roadblocks, setbacks, and obstacles along the way... but if you just keep going and keep trying, you can do it.

As Little Nemo says... just keep swimming.
(yes, I loved the movie and yes, I am 30 years old)

So I signed up for a marathon.

26.2 miles.

Scary.

***sings to self: "just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming."***

Cavanal 5 Mile Run

A week ago I ran up this hill. It's the "world's highest hill" at 1,999 ft tall. If it were a ft taller, it would be a mountain. The 5 miles up this "hill" were killer.



I did this run with one of my best friends and we had a blast. I had not seen her in almost 2 years! She met me in my hometown and we ran jogged and walked our way up the hill. I was dragging around mile 2 as you can see. I'm the one in the pants who is barely managing to stay upright. I also had a cold and was hacking like a chain smoker. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)


Here we are at the finish line and I was very relieved to be finished with this race!

I finished in ~77 minutes. Yup, that's a whopping pace of >15 min per mile. Oh yeah. I know most grandmas move faster than that but they're not running up hill for 5 miles straight! Hey, it was a great way to start a Saturday morning and I got to hang out with a wonderful friend. :-)

The never ending story...

Do you ever pick up a book that you just CAN'T manage to finish? Yeah... that's me with Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and the Damned. I have been reading this book for months.

It's not from lack of effort.
* I carry this book in my purse to work.
* I take it into the house with me at night.
* I put it in my car when I will be getting an oil change and have a few minutes to read.

... and I open it and read one paragraph and then:
* fall into a coma.
* check my email for the 400th time.
* log onto facebook.
* balance my checkbook.
* go clean something... anything.
* read another book instead (or some random science protocol or a product brochure or anything else to prevent me from reading The B&D).

Yes, the Beautiful and the Damned has given me ADHD. I loved the Great Gatsby but somehow I just can't get into this book.

So I bought Eat, Pray, Love instead.

What are you reading right now?

P.S. Thanks for all the comments on the big announcement about San Antonio! I look forward to eating my way through the city and surrounding areas!