Maybe not so bad?

I feel like I've been running like crazy all day! Work was super busy, then I had about an hour in between when I got home and when the kids got out of school to throw a few things together before we left for my mom's house.

We haven't been able to visit for a little over a week so we decided to take some pizza over and have a party! Kenna wanted to use the certificate she got from winning the Reflections competition at her school so we went to Papa Murphy's to pick up her item and grab another pizza for the rest of us.

While the pizzas cooked, I hopped on my mom's treadmill (go multitasking!) to try and get in the 4 miles I had on my schedule. I have to say, I normally absolutely DREAD the treadmill because I get so bored, but it wasn't bad at all there. Still not as good as outside, but there was so much more to distract me, I could talk to my mom and watch a movie with her while still getting in my miles. She even had a fan in the room so I didn't get so hot. The only downside was dealing with the kids wanting to jump on with me. That slowed me down a couple times just making sure they didn't get hurt. I even ended up going an extra mile because we were in the middle of a movie and I wanted to keep watching. :)

And of course, I left with more food than I brought. She never lets me leave without sending me home with something. I came home with pizza, some of her amazing homemade soup and this:

I think she's trying to fatten me up, but I'm certainly not complaining. I LOVE Texas Sheet Cake.

2012 Year End Report

Taking a look back at my running totals for 2012.

I realize a lot of people run more miles than this in a week and I still have a LONG way to go, but I'm fairly happy with the progress I'm making, especially given the IT band issues that have been plaguing me the last 3 months.

Never in a million years did I think I would be running at all...It's amazing what you can do if you just try. :)

Treadmills are not my favorite...

I decided to take my knees back out for a spin today after my semi-spectacular fail on Tuesday. But since my weather app said "Feels like 9 degrees" and we're deep into inversion season around here, I felt like it might be better for both my lungs and my knees to try out the treadmill at the rec center again.

Last time I made it 3 miles before I wanted to kill myself from boredom - today I wanted to do at least 4 assuming my knee was cooperating. I got to the rec center only to see the parking lot overflowing with cars. I forgot about all the new year's resolution crowd. Ugh. I almost turned around right there, but figured I was already there so I should just go ahead and get it done.

Fortunately, when I got upstairs to the treadmills, there were still several open ones. I hopped on and began the drudgery that is running in place for 40 minutes. I think I made it all of 1 mile before I started looking longingly out the window. I saw a guy running up and down the street outside and it just made me wish I was out there. I did finish my 4 miles though, so I can chalk up 4 miles as my longest run on the treadmill. I have no desire to do anything longer!

The hardest part of running on the treadmill for me is having my time and distance smack dab in front of my eyes the whole time. That and not having any change in scenery. The good part of the whole ordeal was that my knee mostly cooperated. I only had a mild pain instead of the searing one that makes me limp. Hopefully that means that I'm slowly getting my IT band issues worked out.

Tonight we also took Kenna to her district Reflections contest. She made it past the school level so she was able to move up to this one. Her entry was a really cute comic book that she wrote and drew. They called her name for an honorable mention, so she received a medal, but because of some confusion in the way they explained things, she thought that she had moved on to the next round. Her friend that was there with her broke it to her before I could and it results in one very disappointed little girl. It breaks my heart that she can't see how great of a job she did! She even said that she couldn't be proud of herself because she didn't get to move on. It is moments like this where I really wish she could see how amazing and talented she is.

We talked for quite a while about it...and I think things are better. But it just hurts to see her hurting. How could you not be proud of this cutie pie!

2013 Goals

I'm not very good at resolutions, so I don't usually make any, but I'm feeling the need to get my energy focused and redirected in a more productive way. Making a list of a few goals for the year seemed to be a good way to do that, so without further adieu, here they are:

1. Spend more time with my kiddos, and less time connected to the computer, phone, TV etc. I want this to be good quality time, not just 'sitting in the same room' time. I want to get to know them better, and let them get to know me. With our crazy schedules I have let chores and other things get in the way of spending quality time with them. 
2. Get out my camera...even if it's just the one on my phone. I want to take at least one picture a day...something to build a photo scrapbook of the year from. This is going to be REALLY challenging for me, but I want to be better about recording this time in our lives. The kids are getting big way too fast!
3. Run 850 miles this year. This feels like a stretch, but hopefully something that is attainable. I managed 312 last year and didn't start my Couch to 5K until the middle of July. I'm running more miles per week now and have several races on the docket so I'm hoping to knock this one out of the park.
4. Run (at least) 13 races. Sort of random, but I have this idea in my mind to run 40 races before I turn 40 so I had best get going on that. :) It's sneaking up on me faster than I would like.
5. Continue my pattern of exercising at least 5 times per week. So far, I have gone for 6 consecutive months. I'd like to add another 12 months to that. 
6. Take more time to focus on my own personal intellectual and spiritual development. Whether that is reading a new book, writing, learning about something new, praying and reading my scriptures or just spending some time in my own head, I need more of it.

Those are the few that are most developed right now. There are a few more swimming around in my head that I might come back and add later, but I don't want to have so many that I can't accomplish them either. Most everything else I want to do just involves managing my time better.