4 miles

For those of you who are anxiously awaiting to see how my running is going, this post is for you. I hit four miles! Woo hoo! On Thursday I did about 3.8 and then I did four this morning! So proud of myself. Thanks to Megan, Ryan, and Hailey for your amazing encouragement!

Half Marathon: Who the heck signed me up for this?

Let me start by saying that I really hate to run. Like a lot. I don't find it fun to push myself to painful limits. I don't find it a challenge to have to psyche myself into running that last leg up hill.

Saying this, I signed up to run a half marathon in October. I have to run 13.1 miles in 12 weeks, and I can't make it past 3.5 miles. I stop. I give up when my whole body becomes one humungo muscle pain/ burn. So why am I doing this?

I'm not quite sure. I guess to prove myself wrong and to show some certain people in my life (I will not mention names because that would be rude) that I can indeed run that distance. And to really take a giant step in focusing on my health.

So back to the frustration, WHY can't I make it farther? Why does it get harder everyday? Shouldn't it be getting easier. And to add on to my frustrations I have a training plan that I am following, but then I look online and there are 10,000 different training plans for a half marathon. Which is the best? Is mine really going to work for me?

Then I have everyone saying, "Oh, once you go 7 miles you can go 13.1." Are you kidding me? I can't even go 4!

Can you tell I'm excited? :) These frustrations come after a frustrating run this morning in which my lower back started hurting like crazy at about 3 miles and I could feel the lunges I did last night in my butt every step I took.

Luckily, my sweet husband is training too, and he is so encouraging. But he keeps having to talk me into actually doing the half. I also have 2 good friends who are going to be running with me, so that will be great! I know I can do it, but geez, I must have been crazy to sign up for this. Philippians 4:13 has become my constant verse I repeat throughout the run!

So here's the link to the race: http://homeofpurduehm.com/ and there's a lot up hill. The next few months should be interesting. But I have a feeling that it will be one of my proudest accomplishments.

I was reading back through some of my calender quotes and came upon one that caught my eye.
It reminds me of the light that should be shining through Christians as we live our lives for Christ. I loved it, and it definitely made me smile!

"The graceful beauty of God shined on her... as if

she strolled through her day under a spotlight from heaven."

That's all! :)

Almost August? Already?

Two vacations, a mission trip, and a week of babysitting have made for the quickest summer yet. And I am not happy about that. I have three weeks until school starts (one of those weeks being a trip home) and I haven't done anything school related. In fact, I picked up my school bag yesterday to find cobwebs. I was so proud for my ability to relax, but felt a tad guilty thinking about all the plans I had to get so much done this summer...

So here I am , at school.... kind of working. And I might add, IN MY VERY OWN CLASSROOM! Woo hoo! No more male coach that can't leave his room while I am teaching because he are working on basketball plans. No more of the same male coach carrying basketballs into the classroom and hitting the walls with the basketballs while I am trying to teach. No more having to move stuff out of the front of the classroom in order to be able to teach in the previously mentioned classroom, because he never gets out of his chair to teach. Oh wait, does he teach? OK, done ranting. Needless to say, I am so so so excited to have my own classroom. Bulletin boards are done, files are mostly organized, my desk looks how it will probably look all year: messy. Though I may keep it cleaner since students will see it all year.

Speech syllabus is done. Sophomore English is as done as it will be. I will be getting to teach freshmen this year. I am excited about that, but dreading having to prep for another class. I almost gave up last year, but hopefully I will be more confident this year. Literature for life is still a class I struggle with. It's hard to plan curriculum for these students because the state standards are not clear.

A few things I am super excited about this fall:

• Football (high school and college)
• Seeing my kids (old and new!)
• Student Council
• Homecoming
• Cooler Weather
• My first half marathon
• My best friends wedding!
• Softball hitting
• Teaching ( I complain, but I really do love it)
• Being busy again
• Pumpkin flavor in everything. :)
• FHS blood drive
• Black Friday. :)
• My brother coming to visit

There are so many more things I am looking forward to, and actually, this post makes me ready for school. Remind me of this in October.