Shopping, Money, Commercialism, Thrifty and more

I very much on the cheap side of life. Money does not flow easily from my hands. I rarely have money burning a hole in my pocket because I always think that there may be something better to spend my money on. I believe that I have learned a lot in the last couple of years about being generous though. I've been more generous with my time which doesn't necessarily equate to money when you are a stay at home mom. I've even been more generous with my money on some occasions which really just being more aware that life isn't free. Even if I can get something for "free" there is a cost for someone or of some kind.

Contrast that thought that there is nothing for "free" with my love of getting good deals. For the last year or so I've been subscribing to a blog called "Money Saving Mom". Right when I started reading this blog there was a deal about cheese. I ended up getting many pounds of cheese really cheap. It was a combination of coupons and finding the right sale at the right store. Wow, it was fun!

In reading the Money Saving Mom blog I ended up getting a little competitive - maybe a lot competitive but with people that I didn't really know and with myself. Can I get my grocery budget down to rock bottom? (Not that I think 400-500 a month is extravagant.) How long can we go on the eat from the pantry challenge? There's a part of me that isn't willing to purchase something at a non-Aldi store that wasn't on a great sale with a coupon! I have also then not purchased as much at Aldi thinking that there would be a sale/coupon deal coming up. This has translated into more hunting and searching for food around the house and not being a very good meal planner. (Meal planning is one of those things that I have generally taken pride in doing well - helping us to save money and be nutritionally sound!)

I had some thoughts dancing around in my head about this and they became more concrete when I read a guest post about "what we don't spend money on". That post has really gotten me to think about our commercial world and how it works.

More on that later...

2010 Christmas Card

Rejoice Lord King Religious Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with custom Christmas cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas Cards

We haven't done Christmas cards for I'm not sure how many years - maybe only 2, but two years ago life was very much in transition. I think when we last wrote Christmas cards, my husband had just graduated from college and didn't have a job yet. Most people know that he did find a job and we didn't move, but I think that we are due for the form letter.

I'm not sure who dislikes the form letters. Is it only Dear Abby or Ann Landers - who are now history anyway? It's not that I don't want to write a personal note to everyone, but the reality is that I would say the same things to most people! So this year our Christmas card will contain a one size fits all letter and maybe a short personal note. We will also include a family picture! My friend took some amazing pictures of our family this fall and I will include those in some way. I haven't figured that out yet and then Shutterfly is offering 5o free cards if you blog about their site. (As an aside, it has been good to keep in contact with those old high school college friends - we actually saw some this year in our various travels.)

I have used Shutterfly for photo books which have been amazing! I have these great dreams of being a scrap booker, but it doesn't happen. The photo books are great to put pictures together and then have it sent to you. I don't need any of the equipment needed to crop and tape/glue and worry about acid free and whatever else I would need to think about for pictures.

I made some great photo books of the boys from this summer and gave them to the grandparents. I need to print them again so we can have a copy too! We got some note cards from them as well and they were very nice. Oh, we also have a share site with Shutterfly that we share pictures with some close friends and family! Here is the link if you want to check it out.

I haven't picked out my design yet for our Christmas, but they have a great selection at http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards. Many of the actually say Merry Christmas! There are some more generic cards too that you can put your own words in and use them anytime of the year!

This is the end of my commercial for Shutterfly! They do have great offers that I take them up on frequently. If you are interested in doing a commercial you can apply at http://bit.ly/sfly2010.

Slowing down

I've had a great week so far this week! It's not been a typical week at all for me and one where I've had to slow way down, but it's been so good.

My fall has been really busy. Everything has been good, but just busy. I'm not sure what is going to change now going into winter, but I'm not concerned about that now.

This week I came to visit my friend who recently had a baby. I really don't remember life with a newborn. We can thank the Lord for that! The first few weeks with a tiny new creation is just a world in itself. The baby will be three weeks tomorrow. He still doesn't have his nights and days figured out. He's growing and doing well, but there isn't that much more that happens in the house except taking care of the baby.

For me, it's been a week of slowing down. I've had to really think about my priorities of what I do with my time because I do have time on my hands! My priorities this week have been encouragement and being available for whatever. I've washed dishes, done a little cooking and held a baby.

We have gotten out of the house every day. We've gone for a walk, went out to lunch, checked e-mail at Barnes & Noble, went to the Wednesday farmer's market and today was grocery shopping!

I go home in a few days. I'm looking forward to seeing my family. I'm going to miss my friends all over again. I'll be very well rested. My purpose of coming this week was to be a blessing to my friends, but I feel blessed to be able to spend this week with them. I can't remember a week where I've had the opportunity to do so little!

Turtles, turtles, turtles

The other day I walked outside to do something in the yard, probably take something to the compost pile. I started outside from the screened in porch and walked across the back yard to the garden. I heard a scraping sound. When I initally heard the noise, I associated it with turtle for some reason. We've seen a box turtle around the house frequently so I just assumed it was our friendly neighborhood turtle.

I finished doing whatever I was planning on doing and continued to hear the scraping sound. I decided to go and hunt out the source of the noise fully expecting to find the turtle scraping up the side of the house or something.

To my surprise, I saw two turtles. Between the two of them they were making a scraping sound...I quickly left them alone. I thought it was pretty funny to run into such a thing and realized I had no understanding of turtle mating!

I came back inside and told the boys, "Guess what I saw outside? I saw two turtles and not just one!" I am a homeschool mom, but I wasn't going to share ALL the details and venture into studying that topic!

The boys were excited in response and thinking that it was cool to now have two turtles. The little guy who is full of truth and love and passion then quips, "I hope that they were mating!"

I think that my response was just a dumb look!

To add to the story, we were leaving a few days later and heard a crunch as we were backing out of the driveway. The elder boy appropriately said, "That didn't sound good." One of our turtles is no more. At this point we have no idea on what to expect as far as baby turtles or not! I think I need to get a turtles book from the library!

Country Mart Deal

For those that read this and live close to Rolla, there's a great cheese deal this week at Country Mart. I haven't had a chance to take part, but we will.

Kraft Cheese is on sale for 1.99. That isn't a great deal, but there is a coupon for $5 off 5 that you can get at this link. That makes the cheese $1 a piece which is a pretty good deal! (Chunks at Aldi are 1.79 and here you would get chunks for $1.)

Happy Shopping!

Trying this out...to see if I can link to it somewhere else.

Three Cups of Tea - Locally

I've been listening to Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Thank you to my cousin Jodi for recommending the book. I checked it out from the library and have very slowly so slowly listened to it. (As an aside, I listen while running and since running has not been on my agenda much in the last few months it's taken quite awhile...and itunes was not cooperating either.)

Very briefly - Greg Mortenson through the Central Asia Institute (http://www.ikat.org/) has been building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan since the 90's. He was a climber who failed at climbing K2 and got lost on the way down. He wandered into a village and realized the lack of education that was available to the kids there. Read the book, it's really quite interesting.

With the events that lead up to September 11, 2001, he was seeing that a moderate education was the way to fight terror, one student at a time. He has sacrificed so much to build schools and has a passion for that part of the world.

I think it's wonderful what he has done and I hope to read his next book too to learn more about what has happened post 9/11.

A few weeks ago it dawned on me what is happening at Camp David of the Ozarks (www.campdavidozarks.org) is something very similar to what Greg Mortenson is doing right here in my town. It clicked for me that Ben and Grace are really trying to change a culture as well one child at a time. They are trying to change a culture right here in Missouri! I've always been supportive of Camp David, but this book has given me much deeper significance to what his happening at camp.

Camp David provides hope for children of prisoners. There are 40,000 children of prisoners in Missouri alone. Unfortunately most of these kids are not growing up in homes with loving and devoted parents. Many of these kids are in the foster system or living with a relative because their parent is in the system. The statistics for how many of these kids will be in the system is baffling.

During their 5 day camp experience at Camp David, each child is surrounded by the love of Jesus Christ as well as lots of people who are caring for them and giving them hope. After a week each year, they can have hope that they have a Savior and life can be different. I'm in awe of all of the teenagers and other young adults who give of themselves for these kids every week.

This year, in each of the six weeks of camp, at least one camper chose to follow Christ! What a great privilege to be able to work with this ministry that is making inroads into a culture that does not have much hope. Camp is a big undertaking and lately I've realized how much of an impact that it can make. They are not touching every child of a prisoner in the state - not even close. They have touched the lives of about 160 children this summer but we can hope and pray that's 160 kids who have way more hope than they have had before and will have the ability and courage to break out of the mold of their family!

One kid at a time by one meal at a time for me! It all makes that early alarm clock to go make breakfast worth it!

Phelps County Fair

Last year I found out that there was an "Open" class at the county fair in the "Home Arts" section. I decided to enter a few of my things and I got ribbons for almost everything and some cash to boot!

This year three of us, the boys and I, entered over 30 items between cooking, gardening, horticulture, crafts, art and photography.

Here is a picture of my stash that I sent to the fair. (Thyme - 2in potted herb, zinnia, black-eyed susan, whole wheat bread, rolls, white bread, drop cookies, zucchini bread, and yellow tomatoes.)

I didn't get a picture of the boys projects, we had to get to the fair and then to baseball practice. They entered their banners that they created that I first blogged about here. They also baked cookies, entered some art projects, some flowers that they helped to grow and some photography. (Another post of their stuff...I didn't get a group shot done of their items beforehand.)

We are going to the fair on Saturday to enjoy the rides and maybe the Demolition Derby and pick up our ribbons and prize money!

Those who have influenced me - Jean

Jean and her husband and newborn moved to the small town that I lived in growing up when I was a tween or early teen. (I could probably figure this out, but does it really matter...no.)

Her husband was a ceramic engineer and worked at a local factory that made toilets. She was the stay at home mom to her small child. We met them because they came to our church. I grew up Lutheran - Missouri Synod. Our church wasn't very big and so you got to know people pretty quick especially if they came to something besides just the church service on Sunday.

Their family started to grow. We started a church in our town and our families with a few others were the core group that ventured out. Their family started to grow as well as I did and I was asked to babysit for her while she held a meeting at their house. I was very excited to have my first babysitting job! The meeting was of the Le Leche League which was something very different for me. I was born in the 70's when breast feeding was not embraced so this was a way different concept for me. (She did it, but to be in an entire room full of breast feeding moms as a tween...a little different.) As you can probably tell, Jean helped introduce me to some different ways of doing things than I was exposed to in my house.

Over the years as I spent time with them, the snacks at VBS were a little different. Some of the food in their house was a little different. They bought food at a co-op? Why in the world would you need to do that I thought...whole wheat flour? Isn't "Home Pride Wheat" good enough? (If you don't know me very well, these questions may not be funny to you...if you do know me, I hope that you are laughing.) The parents and kids shared a bedroom...why stumble to another room to get a crying small child? Books scattered everywhere...how many books could a kid want you to read to them?

We moved away from our little town when I was 17. It was a huge move for my family emotionally. I had lived there since I was 4. We only moved two hours away, but I was leaving what was the town that "I grew up in". One of my sweetest remembrances though was Jean writing each of us in our family a letter. I found it so very thoughtful that she would take the time to tell me what knowing me (not just my family) had meant to her.

So the profound impact that she has had on my life is seeing a Christian woman live out her life. She was not just a Christian on Sunday or when people were watching. She made our church family her family because they didn't have other family around. (Neither did we!) I saw her be passionate about things she believed in which centered around healthy living for her family. She was willing to share her life with these three or four giggly girls in Sunday School for a few years. She trusted me with her kids! She showed that she cared and made me realize that I need to do that too. I think that I do the worst at showing people that I care about them of the other things that she has taught me...because I did choose to nurse my kids and I use a whole lot of whole wheat flour! I'm going to guess that she may have wanted to home school more too, but it may have been a little too hard. Too hard, not because of her kids, but because of the social environment.

One last thought...Jean chose to be around the other families in the church though I know that we were judgmental of how they chose to run their family. I believe that Jean did what was right for her family regardless of what others thought. I'm realizing that we probably hurt her in some of those ways and I'm sorry about that.

Now I need to go and find her to thank her!

Those who have influenced me.

Lately I have thought about the amazing women that God has put into my path to learn from. These are the women who have shaped and molded my life because I had a chance to know them. As one friend put it, "Meeting Tina was a life changing experience." Meeting Tina definitely has been a life changing experience and I have been reflecting on the other people in my life who fit into this same category.

Jean, Harriet, Tina, Nikki and Jan are women who have spoken into my life with words or with their actions and helped to mold me into a different and better person. The list is in the order of my meeting them starting from when I was a young pre-teen until now. Two of the people I am happy to say are a part of my life now, but not necessarily for long. Most of these women I would not have considered my "best friend" and most of my closest friends are not a part of this list. My closest friends, though very precious to me, share my daily life and are not necessarily dramatically molding me.

I'm very thankful for the insights that each of these women have given to me intentionally or unintentionally. They have each opened a different window to my world so I could see it in just a little different light. I've been blessed with each of these people at specific times in my life when I needed the shades opened to see from a different perspective. God has blessed me with these relationships as I have needed to grow.

In the posts ahead, you will get to meet each of these women and how they influenced me. I encourage you to be thankful for those people in your life who have molded your thinking and made you a better person for it.

Picture Sharing

I made a new site on Shutterfly with our pictures. I am really liking how the pictures can be organized - it's way easier than here on blog spot!

The website is http://theyoungerrollakoenigfamily.shutterfly.com/.

You will need a password to view the pictures though and it's the general that our street is named after with a capital S at the beginning. Let me know if you need additional assistance with the password!

Enjoy!

Loafing

We are enjoying some pumpkin bread for the start of our lunch! We were talking about how yummy it was and I thanked my boys for making it as they did much of the work.

The response, "Yes, we did do most of the work. You only did the loafing!"

Great play on words!

Bargains...re-thought

So I wrote my boring post on Saturday about what I bought on my grocery shopping trip...and I read through some other people's blogs about how little they spend per week on groceries. I got a little discouraged and have thought about it some more.

My conclusions:

• Good bargains are good things!
• Finding a good bargain is a lot of fun!
• I need to limit my grocery list/couping finding time to about 1 hour per week. (Not including shopping, but shopping should not be a time to look for bargains.)
• We eat a lot of food at home and that's a good thing.

Here's what I assume in every weekly grocery budget:

• No eating out. (Way back when, we did this at least once a week, now it's a big treat.)
• Feeding another couple at least once a week if not more.
• Sunday potluck - main course and a side and possibly a desert or breakfast food
• Sunday night is popcorn, fruit and cheese
• Every other week we do eat with our in-laws, but the alternate week, we host them.
• Four of us eat breakfast, lunch and supper/dinner and snacks at home.

All in all, that's a lot of food. We eat very little convenience food but we do eat quite a bit of fresh fruits and vegetables (generally not organic). Grocery shopping will not define my life. Eating well is a good thing and I don't have to beat myself up about buying something that isn't on sale and without a coupon! (I did make a quit trip to Kroger yesterday to get in on the buy 8, get $4 off on some things that were out of stock on Saturday - savings 72% but I only bought sale items and canned tomatoes, cereal and cheese do not make a meal! I also want to try a recipe for Boston Cream Pie I read this morning - no cheap cake flour that I know of.)

Happy Eating!

Pictures from the first quarter of 2010

We got these great new phones in January and I have been taking pictures. I finally figured out how to get them off of the camera easily!

The standard blue chair pose.

Throwing in at basketball...

Rice Crispy Treat Egyptian Pyramids

Basketball Action...

Straw Fishing at Cub Scouts

Reptile Ranch - Just today!

Finally Leo the Lion - we even got to hear him roar!

Text sent on Friday morning

Dere dad I hav icksiding noos. I lost my tooth. I hope we see you soon. Luve...

Saturday Shopping

I subscribe to this blog called Money Saving Mom that sends out "deals" at different stores and encourages thrifty shopping habits. The person who writes the blog is a Christian home school mom so I can identify with her! She's moral with her thriftiness which is great too! With the amount of stuff that's on her blog though, she definitely puts in quite a few hours of work a day.

Anyway, they suggest that you post about your Saturday Shopping Deals. I had the opportunity to go grocery shopping all by myself yesterday. A great bonus is that some friends lent me their automatic car so I didn't have to do the boot transfer at every store. When I shop all by myself, I am more free to peruse for bargains and look through coupons than if the boys are with me!

The biggest shopping requirement yesterday was to get the big guy some black pants and shoes for his first concert as part of Rolla Young Singers. Amazingly the pants and the shoes that I bought did fit! He even liked the cheaper pants of the two pair that I brought home. I picked up some traditional black dress pants as well as some black cargo pants. Both of them fit, but he thought the dress pants were more appropriate. (Yes, he used that word.) I couldn't disagree though I think they'll pretty much get worn one more time and that will be it!

Back to shopping...I went to Aldi, Kroger and Country Mart to buy groceries. I spent $115 which is more than I like to spend in a week on groceries. Even though I spent that much, I did get some good deals and we won't eat all of this food in a week. I didn't plan out meals before I went shopping which is a pretty big no-no for me so now I'm going to have to plan our meals around what I have on hand. We definitely have lots of vegetables to eat, the protein may be a little more lacking.

Kroger has a buy 8, get $4 off promotion going on. I had coupons for quite a few things so that was my primary reason for shopping, we also were out of fresh fruit and almost out of fresh vegetables so I wanted to pick those things too. Unfortunately they were out of some of the items on their promotion, so I will probably go back and spend a little more of our money food budget.

My Kroger receipt says that I saved $52.01 and I spent $46.22. I don't think that's too bad. Even though I was after those things that were on sale, I did have a few things on my list that we were out of like peanut butter that I picked up.

My best buy? Oscar Meyer Bacon - 2 1lb packages
Sale price $2.77/package
2 $1.50 coupons
Paid $1.27 per package.
Received a $1 off next purchase as well which brought each package of bacon under a dollar. (Breakfast for dinner one night this week.)

I had an extra Lunchable Coupon left from a few weeks ago. Not normally something that I would buy, but I ended up paying $.24 for one. Not a bad price for a treat my kids get very excited about! (Part of a lunch for field trip tomorrow.)

We are trying some Smart Balance Sour Cream for the first time. We use their "buttery spread" so I thought we would try the sour cream. I paid $.49 per 16oz tub for that as a final price. (Bean Burritos are yummy with sour cream.)

At Kroger I got two $4 off because I bought 16 items. Most of the items I had additional coupons for except for the Kraft cheese. The cheese is a good price, even cheaper than Aldi when you bought 8 so I definitely got some of that. I will probably go back again and get some more just because it's that good of a deal.

My other shopping wasn't as exciting. Aldi was just "normal" stuff for us. Juice, yogurt, fruit, fresh vegetables. I did pick up some egg rolls there - they had vegetarian ones which I was excited to see. (I'm guessing that we'll have stir-fry some time this week!)

Country Mart was a quick trip. They had some frozen vegetables on sale and I had coupons for those (Steamfresh .99 - .35 cent coupon doubled, .29 per package). They also had fresh Brussels Sprouts on sale too for $1.49/pound. My family loves those and that was a great price. We ate half of the three pounds that I bought last night with pizza! Unfortunately the Dole coupons were gone at the salad so I had to pay $1 per bag of salad!

Enough of my shopping adventure. Reading this blog and reading about getting deals is fun. I have realized that it takes time to print coupons and figure it all out. I have spent quite a bit of time on this in the last few weeks. The time that I'm spending will constantly need to be evaluated. I am buying food or other things that I wouldn't normally buy? Are we consuming what I am buying? Should I spend that time on something different? If this is "my time" is this how I want to be spending it?

I also picked up some pasta and pasta sauce pretty cheap (Classico - $1.99, $1.00 off two jars - $.50 off because they were part of the promotion - .99/jar). So pasta will be another meal this week! I think I have four dinners planned out while I wrote this blog! Happy Shopping!

Garden Planting!

We have peas in the ground...just a minor obstacle to work around, but we have about a 1/2 pound of pea seeds in the ground!

I had three little boys helping to plant - one that is over for a play date. They helped without too much complaining and are now waiting for me to cup up apples with caramel dip!

My obstacle? The boot that is on my foot because of a broken toe! Yes, my small fall down the stairs two weeks ago did end up in a broken toe. I kicked the door jam of the door going to the basement. I really thought it would get better, but after two weeks it was not so here I am in a boot. I have a check-up in two weeks, I don't know much more than that. No signing up for any 1/2 marathons for me right now.

Positive side - I am allowed to ride a bike so hopefully I'll learn to shift gears properly.

It's March!

If anyone reads this and wonders what is happening in our lives, I'll give you a short run down!

Today was like Christmas for me! I had a Pampered Chef Party last month and the order arrived today. My friends were very generous and therefore I was able to get lots of free/discounted stuff! I bought somethings intending them to be gifts...we'll see if I can keep my paws off! (So far, I've not had that thought of why in the world did I put myself through this...) My new mixer is supposed to arrive tomorrow! Wow, kitchen heaven for me.

Tomorrow I'm going to see a podiatrist. I slipped down the stairs two weeks ago and banged my foot against the door jam. It hasn't felt too good since even with magic Nikki fingers. I'm really afraid of leaving the office in a boot tomorrow, but I do really want to run again so I need to do this. (How am I going to deliver all the Pampered Chef stuff if I can't drive???)

The boys finished basketball this past weekend! Upwards was a lot of fun and the closing awards ceremony was surprisingly great - only an hour long with quality entertainment! I'm trying not to say this around the boys, but I'm thrilled that we aren't doing spring soccer. I was thinking that we aren't doing any sports until baseball this summer, but three weeks of swim lessons, four days a week almost counts as a sport! The boys were very blessed to have grandparents come to every basketball game that they played.

My husband has been working really hard. This week seems to be better than the last two - one he was home but worked a ton of hours followed by a week of being out of town.

I think I sealed the deal with the cookie contract tonight. I succeeded in making the cookie the way that they like them! We'll see if I can do it consistently or not, but tonight was good.

I picked up a weekend job in April working for a curriculum company at a convention in Kansas City. I'm really hoping that it is fun and interesting. My husband did remind me that I don't like to go on vacation without him but I'm trying it yet again.

Hopefully tomorrow I can manage to plant some peas in the garden between piano lessons and doctor's appointment. As I was digging in the garden on Sunday, I found most of my perennial herbs coming up and some parsley growing too. I picked something in my garden in December and I have thyme that can be picked right now too. That's really pretty incredible that it's only been three months that the ground was not producing! I'm expecting to only be gardening at my house this year so I will be working to maximize my space.

Our new cell phone only option is working well. I love having my personal e-mail on my phone and all of my contacts there too synced up with my gmail. It's still weird to not have messages when I get home or have a bunch of e-mail to go through because I've looked at it through the day.

For Lent, I'm fasting from Facebook. I do miss it some, but it's good to take a break. It's not always a good place for me and gives me some of the same vibes as high school popularity. I have really amazing friends that I can communicate with outside of Facebook!

That's a summary of our world! I hope that you are enjoying more light and are being blessed by our amazing God! (Pictures to come soon, I'm still not smooth with the picture uploading.)

Contentment

I haven't been blogging much lately because I have had some inward struggles with contentment and self-importance. Here are two passages that I have thought about this morning.

Philippians 4 10I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at last you have renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Ephesians 3:14-19
14For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

I'm working on being content and giving God the glory!

Imagine all of Rolla running

Sunday, January 31st, I ran in the ING Half Marathon in Miami, Florida! There were over 18,000 people registered for the race which is about the equivalent of all of Rolla running 13.1 or 26.2 miles! Wouldn't that be a crazy and pretty incredible thing. Races are very inspirational! There are people of all ages and sizes and fitness levels running and you NEVER can guess how well someone can do. Someone who looks overweight and has horrible form and be way faster than you and someone who looks extremely fit can run really slow! If you like people watching, this is a great place for it. There was a group of people who were running for a group called Lifeline. There were lots of charity runners, but the unique thing about many of these girls is that they had long skirts and head coverings on and were running and many faster than me.

I had a fun weekend with cousins and a sweet 5 month old cousin. It was very refreshing to get away for a few day. The warmth felt pretty good too! I missed my family though because I love them and like to share fun things with them!

The run was good. It was very humid through the whole race and there were two small rain showers that felt good. I was trying out the run 5 min, walk 1 min training program for the first time in a race. (Jeff Galloway) I had NOT trained to do my ultimate goal of a 2 hour half marathon. (about 2:05 is the closest that I've come.) I had only trained to finish and had started this 5/1 thing. There were some definite interesting Miami spectacles on the run like the two drag queens. At about mile 12 I caught up with the person that I met in St. Louis waiting for our flight. She was running the whole marathon so it was just in time that I caught up to her.

My end chip time (my time from the start to the finish, not the fun to my finish) was 2:08. I felt good about that. It was a good time...and the bigger deal, it proved the training methodology. I can go just as fast with walking every minute as I can with running the entire time. The biggest benefit to me, is that my recovery is much much better!

Here are some pictures of the race - a lot of me and then some in general.

I left my cousins after the first 1/2 mile because I wanted to go faster than they were wanting to go. It was a very crowded race. I felt like I was jockeying for position all of the time and trying to find some place to run. Not a bad thing except when you have to slow down to find somewhere to go.

Walking the first time - after 5 minutes of running was HARD. It was hard because I was excited. It was hard because I was afraid of what people may think of me walking so soon. I passed all those people in the end so it wasn't that big of a deal. The second walk break wasn't so bad and by the third walk break I was very much in the rhythm.

I'm ready to sign-up for my next race...more discussions will need to happen with the family before that though. I was nice to have a few days away, but vacation really isn't so much fun without my husband.

Anyone ready to join me?