...the best gift keeps giving.

Already, 2013 has proven awesome.  Great friends, great food, great time with family.  I usually hate January.  However, this was truly the year of the gift that keeps giving....

MY NEW GARMIN!!  It's amazing!  It's Green!  It's simple!  It looks so cute on my wrist!

I've been logging COLD winter miles in my new winter socks and new shoes, both gifts from Kevin.  He gave me TWELVE whole days of Christmas (though I tried my best to convince him it was more like 45 days) where each day I got a gift.  Running gear, dresses, healthy goodies and .... yep, other goodies!!

Then, I came home and added those miles to my new calendar made by Teddy.  He made me a new calendar to log my miles on.

Not sure who that is in the drawing, hope it's Ted & Kevin!

Kristian bought me new running socks....they "rain the rainbow" and match everything I own.  I'm WAY faster when I match!! (he wasn't in the mood to pose for a sock filled photo)

Annie made me a framed phrase that had a lot of awesome running quotes in it.  My favorite being "If you ran 1,000, you can run 10 today".  Touche!

There was a running shirt directly from Brooklyn...

Uphill, in the snow & ice, 14 miles, 16 degrees and still smiling!

And THESE gems!  Sounds like a crazy gift but ... I'm not the girl I used to be.  I clean.  A lot.  some people think too much.  These dream inducing suds make my cleaning fun and delicious!

Thanks Krista!!

I get most of my cleaning ideas from One Good Thing by Jillee who happens to be giving away a gift card for a new faucet...I guess she heard about ours!  It's leaking, dirty, and leaking.  It leaks.  And it falls apart to often for my liking.  After and before it leaks.  And by the way, if you want to know how to make your shower sparkle, make your carpet look new after dog pee stains, clean a dirty oven without chemicals or put a new refractometer in your car (ya, not that one), check out her site!  

There are so many other things I haven't mentioned but stay tuned, there's more to come!

that 2013 will be FANTABULOUS!!

Happy New Year!

When I started thinking about this blog, I started searching pictures on the web to celebrate 1,000 miles.  Little did I know, the absolute most perfect picture would be literally handed to me on a silver platter.

Our good, awesome friend Dave, painted this picture of me at the end of the Dayton Air Force marathon with some extra special details.  Such a cool Mile Marker to remember 2012 with!

My last ten miles came as a little surprise.  My goal was to get all the miles in by Kevin's birthday on December 22, but we got so busy with Christmas fun that I was a day later than that.  I headed out at mile 990 thinking I'd do a quick 5 miles and finish up the next day, but the weather was warm and sunny.  I made the decision early on to start taking every neighborhood turn I could to rack up the miles and make the judgement call whether to push on when I crossed my typical midway point.  When I got to Liberty-Fairfield road, I was already at 6 miles so of course I had to finish!  Christmas was in the air, people were smiling and happy, and most importantly, it felt great.  I finished in the dark with the glow of Christmas lights and as Kevin poured me a beer, I shared my exciting news....1,000 miles!  I went on to collect 14 more before the year ended and was also pleasantly surprised to see that I had actually accumulated almost FIFTY EIGHT extra miles through out the year on my Garmin by always logging at least .2 - .8 on each run and never physically writing it down.  Yay me!


Onto my new goals.  It took some time. Running all year has really made me a better person and runner in so many ways that I need and want to continue with that again.  So my running goal will be 1200 miles.  I have two planned long runs, an April Marathon right here on my favorite bike path where I train, and a later 50k - 32 miles, also local but very technical terrain.  Down into a gorge.  (?!)  I will plan my fall running around those results.  My ultimate goal is a true 50 mile ultra. 

Yet another gift (car magnet to replace the two I lost in the car wash)...Peggy, you're AWESOME!!!

My second goal, yep, this is where I up the ante.  Remember my mantra?  If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough!  I have been extremely happy this year.  Many good things happening, many good people met, many good times to be had, so I want to pay it back.  My goal is to donate a dollar for every mile run.  (Keep track by following the chart to your right)  (And feel to ooooh and aaaah over the chart that took two entire planning periods to figure out!)

To make all that donating monetarily feasible for me, knowing that I have money just dripping out of my checkbook into Lakota West High School for band and SOON college, I will donate as often as twice a month to my charities of choice.  I look forward to posting my results on this one!  This month, my donation has already surpassed my mileage due to a special circumstance, I hope to keep all my giving very local.  I thank Ann Curry, the reporter, for starting her 26 days of Kindness in honor of the Sandy Hook children and adults.  Their story touched me deeply.  Ann's 26 Acts of Kindness

With those decisions made, I was able to finish up the year strong.  We were lucky enough to have my whole family here for Christmas!  My parents and brothers family all came out on December 26 and we celebrated for another week.  We are very grateful to share the holidays with so many incredible people....and we always end up with at least ONE good picture of us!

This year, I will be kind to myself.  I won't run when sick or exhausted.  I will go to bed early when I can, I will party when I can, I will stop feeling guilt for not getting everything done, and enjoy every day with my kids.  Every day.

...I will not spoil!

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."  Epicurus

The time has come, I'm ready to bring it home, 1,000 for the year!  Last night I crossed into the final countdown, I reached 951 miles, that was a benchmark for me.  49 miles more and I will take a small break before I choose my next goal.

This morning I found my self a little sad that I wasn't actually over 1,000 miles by now.  A quick data search shows you that I took two full months off this summer.  However, this time last year when I set this goal, I could only imagine I'd be completely ecstatic when I was in the 900's.  I will enjoy these last 49 miles and reflect upon my year.  No injuries, runs of pure pleasure, some of pain and heat, some anger, but all in all, I'm so lucky to be a runner!

And these miles, especially these last miles, would not have happened without my family.  The kids who happily slept in while I ran (that really is a gift!  No worries of breakfast fiasco's or bored children).

My little buddy waiting up  for a goodnight kiss

They wouldn't have happened without Kevin, who either escorted me to my long runs or made dinner while I knocked out 5-10 on the treadmill.  And they wouldn't have happened without flexibility.  Even the idea of the family going to Mass at noon has helped me get extra miles in.

Next update....

I believe that I'm training again!

How true! Especially the hungry part. I have begun to settle into a good routine for my ultra training but wow, I could eat all day! I especially enjoyed the extra hour sleep thrown In there...just not the spending at least one of those hours - from 11:30 pm to 12:30 am waiting for the release of Halo 4 with my awesome 16 year old at Best Buy. Good thing he really is that awesome!

I did my first longish run on Saturday with Kevin playing crew, 15 miles down from Xenia on the bike trail, stopping just once for peanut butter crackers and yellow Gatorade, mmmmmmm! Great run while listening to Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. Same author as Gone Girl and also a murder mystery in a non gory style but WOW! Imagine, running on a 60 mile long bike trail that weaves along beautifully quiet yet desolate farms and small towns, fall leaves on the ground, being passed maybe 4 times in 2.5 hours by bikes.....creep factor!!! I jumped several times because of noisy squirrels.

In the meantime, we got through another Halloween with all three kids dressing up.

I managed to squeak out a few extra minutes in the kitchen making spooky treats with Teddy to take to lunch!

And of course we had to have "cheers" before we sent them out haunting.

This week brings a scramble to get ready for the Thanksgiving extravaganza which we host each Thanksgiving Eve. We have a few surprises in store for those that attend and while one of them will NOT be my downstairs finally painted a new color, I figure the fact that at least one of the homebrews has a 6.9 alcohol level it will most likely make everyone forget that I wanted it painted in the first place! (how's that for a run on sentence?)

No, I really can't complain, just thought this was funny! I got home at 5 and dinner was started and Grammy was making her tea by the time I was dressed for my run. When I returned, all had eaten and prepped for the evening activities while I showered and then ate an incredible dinner with Kevin and my shadow Ted. It's impossible to train for big races without the support of your best friend. Kevin not only plans my weekend runs but he also is there on nights like this when I need to leave for an hour and know that dinner/homework is done. Did I mention that he also leaves love notes in my car every morning complete with chocolates??? Really!!!!! Yep, I think I should teach a class on how to knab the best husband ever ;)

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...I am a dork.

Really.  I'm just a big goober.   This week, in part due to Gloria's suggestion (thanks!) I've been listening to Wild by Cheryl Strayed.  Her months on the PCT - Pacific Crest Trail - has been great running company.  However, she just spent about an hour describing a box she received during her trip that contained an outfit she was super geeked to wear after spending 3 months in the same exact clothes.  The outfit consisted of jeans, a black tee and a black lacy bra/underwear.  She made it sound so incredible, lace after hiking for 3 months, sweaty, dirty, smelly.  While listening, I was piling my miles, feet were sore and my second toenail about to pop off.  (THANKFULLY it's not summer!)

While plodding away, I couldn't think of anything else other than getting home and logging into Victoria's Secret to reward my millions of steps onto the hard pavement.  $50 later, I have a tracking number and am awaiting some pretty new goodies.  Yep, I'm an Advertisement Exec's dream.

I've run in a rain storm this week, no, make that a Cincinnati hurricane in which I had to strip down to my sports bra and shorts just to get into my car.  My apologies to anyone that had to witness that!

Thinking I could wait out the rain but no, I went for it.  6 miles in torrential downpours.

Literally, 5 minutes after I got in car after running in hurricane I'mgonnadrownyou, and drove to pick Annie up at CCM.  Sunny skies and happiness.

I surrendered another toenail to the running Gods yet got to enjoy thoroughly the experience of running down a usually busy free-way that is now under construction.  It's the little things that make my silly world go round.  That and Victoria's Secret!!  (oh, and runningwarehouse.com.....I'm now thinking I deserve some new running capris, do I hear you nodding "yes"?!)

...I love them.

I love fall.  Really, I do.  And big picture is that we are all happy and healthy.  We love our home, our lives and we are very lucky.  BUT, and I really mean BUT, I hate fall because I don't get to see half of my family.  Kevin and Kristian are simply gone.  Band is all consuming and it's kind of just sad.  Saturday nights that should be full of bonfires, beer and happy juice are full of laundry, online shopping and blah.  I know, kids are starving in China but really, I love my family and I miss them!

For those of you close enough to receive my incessant texts, I apologize:  You've seen most of these pictures.

Kristian with his flowers for Homecoming...

His date.

Ted Camping & Metal Detecting via Grandpa's detector.  He thinks he's the Shazzbutt.

Yep, happy clams.  I really could live in a camper.

OK, yes it' gross, but I'm really proud of my first lost toenail.  No need to enlarge, just be all "wow Deb!  You run a lot!!"

Watching Annie's game. 

Watching Kristian's game!

Sleeping with his toolbox of books.  Nerd ;)!

 Big picture, we are a very lucky family.

***hey, if you're blog savy, teach me how to make all my pics the same size!! This is sending my OCD side over the edge!  I need a little lesson 

Autumn-izing

I believe that I'm only a few stops away from the Crazy Train.

As I skitter around doing the Autumn Home Make-over, I sadly remember those carefree days of summer.  These last few weeks are typical of this time of year yet catch me unprepared every single time.  While I adore the change of seasons and all that come with them, I find the stress involved with fall is more than a few pumpkins spice candles can fix.  Thankfully, all three kids love school and everything about it.  

Cheering for Plains

Kristian home from school

  

Teddy's first day at a new school

  

We spent Labor day at Aunt Nancy's Lake House in Michigan and it was good to get away.  Teddy had his heart set on fishing so Nancy bought him a pole and bait.  After giving up on hooking worms, he resorted to dog food with equally good results.  He probably caught 4-5 small sunfish that were all returned to Paw Paw lake.

Gilligan, The Skipper and Ginger.  (Definitely not Mary Ann!)

It's been difficult to keep up my miles lately.  Running from 8-9pm is my most common free time but can be stressful as it's hanging over my head all day.  However, I'll get my miles in somehow and  I have a lot of happy summer running memories.  The last two fun runs being the Color Run with Nancy, Rachael, Annie and Ted...

Still finding Color in the Durango

 ...and my favorite running app.  They had a little contest and I was one of the winners of their shirt.  Ask my kids, I'm proud to wear it absolutely everywhere!

Tell me it's not the coolest shirt ever!

Kevin has been a true Brew Master this fall, brewing each and every Sunday.  He provided the beer for a friend's pig roast and all three flavors were a big hit!  

Kevin and his Jockey Box

Lastly, Kevin's band QUALIFIED FOR STATE at their second competition!!  Biggest perk, the season is now one week shorter and they can choose their State Competition location which will be close to home.

Gift for my Favorite Band Director