Hotel Blues

I had to travel out of town for work Monday night.  Normally, this would be a special treat for me.  A hotel room all to myself, no kids or husband with their never ending demands for food, drink, or clothing. 

I arrived at the hotel excited to check in and head to Target, a rare special treat, and finish some Christmas shopping.  The friendly check in lady greeted me with a smile and assured me the continental breakfast was top notch.   Next, I kindly inquire where the hotel fitness room is and get, "We don't have a fitness room but we have a sauna."  Really, a sauna?  I'm not seeing the comparison here. 

Dagumit!  I'm running my first 5k Saturday, people.  The last motel I stayed at (Hampton Inn's ROCK) had treadmills that were like running on air.  Seriously, that treadmill made me feel like a freakin running goddess.   I was looking at the girl next to me with a cocky look on my face while her expression mirrored death thinking to myself, "no worries, my friend, some day you'll run like me."  So, you can see why I was so terribly bummed by the news of no repeat performance.  I NEEDED that feeling before Saturday.  Instead, I guess I'll be wearing one of these:

Happy Birthday to Me!

Great Thanksgiving.  I hosted dinner for my family and turned 34!  It was a normal Thanksgiving with the kids outside "hunting rabbits" and the men downstairs drinking Budweiser watching football.  I got up early and ran to offset the extra calories.  Running in the morning is harder than running at night so I better try to fit in a couple morning runs this week before my first 5k Saturday. 

My SIL brought this to dinner.  She's crafty like that.  I am not. 

 

We left Thursday night at 9 to go Black Friday shopping.  NEVER again.  It was insane.  I'm an Internet girl.  I love sitting here in my sweatpants shopping online.  I love having it delivered to my doorstep in boxes and not worrying about hiding it from the kids.  My sincerest apologies to whomever had to empty our carts (TWICE) after we decided we didn't want to wait in the checkout line.

So, in honor of turning 34, I thought I'd make a top ten list from 33.  Again, they are in no particular order and this was much harder than I thought it would be.  Apparently, my memory sucks.

1.  Getting my iPhone  (Bet you didn't see that coming)
2.  Discovering running 
3.  Crossing a couple classes off for my Master's in EDAD
4.  Seasoning my barrel horse

5.  Football team winning a 3 peat Championship

6.  My new living quarter trailer  (It was a great summer "camping" with family and friends and having my own toilet is priceless.)

7.  Finally going snowmobiling with my husband and admitting that I loved it.... and Deadwood.
8. My kids milestones.  Grady's first jr. rodeo.  Payton playing volleyball.  Priceless. 
9.  Family trips.  Especially to the CO Springs ranch rodeo.  

10.  Shooting my first whitetail buck with my husband and our BFFs.

 

Today is my last day of vacation so I intend to be extra productive.  On my to do list:

• Run
• Photograph colts
• Work on final
• Laundry
• Pack for work trip
• Clear out Thanksgiving leftovers in fridge...especially desserts

Thankfuls

 

Some of my Facebook peeps have been listing something that they are thankful for each day in November up until turkey day tomorrow.  Guess I better get caught up.  Please don’t think I’m shallow for some of the things on my list.  I composed it in mere minutes.

I’m thankful for:

1. My family-all of them.  Seriously, I’d be in high water without them.
2. A fabulous group of co-teachers
3. My iPhone
4. Google
5. Online shopping
6. God 
7. Air freshener (hey, I teach adolescents)
8. Bleach
9. Wine
10. Nike running gear
11. The timer on my coffee pot
12. The kids I teach.  They brighten my day…when I don’t want to throttle them;)
13. Large hoop earrings – I wear a lot of hats but somehow the hoops make me look more put together.
14. Hats
15. Running shoes.  I love them. 
16. Denim jacket
17. Diet coke & Coffee
18. My health
19. That I live somewhere with the best water in the world…right out of the tap!
20. Free weights
21. Living quarter trailers
22. Flat irons
23. My kids’ teachers and babysitters

Have a happy turkey day tomorrow all!   I plan on getting up for an early morning run to balance the food and wine.  My goal is not to sabotage my body too bad.  I’m running in my first 5k December 3^rd!!

Running in the Dark

My sister rocks.  Not only does she give me free fresh eggs (hint), she buys me sweet ass running beanies with lil reflective thingies on the side so I don't get hit by the beer truck while running on the highway.  It even has a hole in the back for my ponytail and sweet ass gloves to match.  Excuse my profanity...that's just how excited I am about my new gear.  The super cool Cars headlight is courtesy of my son.  He also doesn't want me to get hit by the beer truck (not a lot of traffic on our highway).  I'm beyond blessed to have such a caring family. 

 

Have I mentioned how in love I am with with my iPhone.  I can take pictures of myself without trying to guess if I'm really in the picture.

Anyways, my husband didn't get home until it was already dark, and I was dressed for the occasion so off I went.  I've ran in the dark before but I had a full moon those couple weeks.  Tonight was black..pitch black...with BEAUTIFUL stars.  Remember, there are no street lights where I live.  The nearest town is 17 miles and the nearest Walmart is around 100.  Really.  Running in the dark rocks (almost as much as my sister).  I'm almost afraid to try the same route in the daylight.  When it's dark there is no sense of distance and the time just flies by.  I highly recommend it!

When is your favorite time to run/exercise?????

Obsessed

I've become blog obsessed.  Not with starting my own, but with reading all the cool blogs out there.  I'm newly addicted to running (if you can call my max of 2.8 miles and a slow steady pace running).  Anyways, I recently discovered Google reader and have all the blogs I've discovered there so I can follow them with ease.  In my quest to become a runner (will blog later), I wasted half a day reading inspiring stories of others and made some astounding discoveries:

• There are runners out there who "warm up" for 2 miles before running another 10.  WTH?  Are they for real? 
• There are runners out there who run an entire half marathon at a 7 minute something pace.  Just kill me now. 
• Drinking alcohol slows down your training progress....DRASTICALLY.  This explains A LOT.
• After hearing the word "tempo" on about every other blog, I had to Google it.  Google DOES know everything.
• No other training watch compares to the Garmin.  I'm currently watching one on eBay. I have become obsessed with checking the mileage on my Nike sport band to the point of nearly causing a traffic accident while resetting my truck odometer.
• Runners unanimously agree that one of the perks of running is the ability to consume more food without gaining weight.  Finally, I'm inspired!
• On the bright side, there are also many runners who were non-runners (like me) that can now call them selves runners...or at least woggers.  My husband and brother-in-law use this term for the runners who are walking yet jogging.  You know what I'm talking about.

Regardless, I am still determined to build up my mileage and throw around words such as pace and tempo and officially be a "runner".  I also want to look like this.  That's not asking for too much now is it?

To blog or not to blog?

Last year I made a feeble attempt at blogging about my everyday adventures as a desperate ranch wife.  I failed..miserably.  Recently, I've found myself writing blogs in my head about various topics, so I've decided to take the plunge again.  My promise to bloggerville (is that really a word?)  is to be much more successful this go around.

The most difficult part of my back to blogging mission was the name....thus, enters fate, and my friend Tara.  Friday night we went on a seemingly simple journey to a friend's jewelry party.  Like most of the people around here, our friend lives in the country.  So, although we all claim to be from the same town, we actually live great distances apart.  However, we will travel great distances for quality girl time...and wine:)  We scratch a couple names off our Christmas lists and decide we better get back to rescue our husbands who are "babysitting"  (that's a whole other blog). 

To make a very long story short, on our return trip we got lost.  Very lost.  My theory was to "keep going" because all gravel roads have to come out somewhere, right?  My 8 year old daughter had a more practical approach...the GPS on my beloved iPhone.  Yes, I realize I should have thought of that myself.  I'm putting the blame for that on Katie and her "special" drink.  Although a noble idea, one needs a steady cell signal to accurately use the GPS.  After many laughs and wrong turns we finally got a signal and found a "road" (term used quite loosely) that we recognized. 

It was the next day, after getting a lot of  flack about our misadventure, that fate stepped in and finally led me to the start of a blog name.  When reliving our journey with my husband, I commented that I was amazed that my GPS actually knew the names of the gravel roads on our rural route.  Bam!  I had a name...sort of.  Following my firm belief that Google knows everything, I searched and researched naming a blog to make sure fate wasn't messing with me....again.  I had no idea there were soooooo many rules regarding naming a blog, especially if one fully intends on gaining fame and fortune.  After 2 wasted days of "research" I've accepted the slim chances of that actually happening and well, here I am.  Stay tuned to hear about my Life on a Rural Route.............