Monday, February 28, 2011

Birthday Business


My birthday is this Saturday so that means soon I will revert into eleven-year-old girl mode and begin milking this "Birthday Week" business for all it's worth. I still love my birthday. I actually like getting older. (I know, wut?) I really like looking back at what I've accomplished in the past year and making plans for what I want to do next. I suppose I could do this on New Year's Eve but the narcissist in me want to make it all about ME.

So what's on the agenda for b-day number thirty-three? Two words:

Birthday Marathon.

As in my very own marathon. Just me, my favorite route, my favorite music and about four-and a-half hours. I'm going to get up early, go reeeallllly slow and just enjoy the morning to myself. I'll probably take some photos along the way, stop and have some snacks and soak everything in. (Hopefully I won't be soaking in rain, sleet or snow. Please?) Maybe I'll even make my own finishers medal.




After that, the girls will be off to the in-laws house and I will enjoy dinner with Jason here. Not a bad way to kick off year thirty-four, eh?

Thursday, February 17, 2011

According to Ava

Sometimes I feel like Ava is a cartoon character. This is my interpretation of her on the epic snow day we had a couple of weeks ago.



Hey, it’s me Ava. Today was the best day of my entire life. You know why? Because it was a SNOW DAY. And not not just a regular old fluffy snow day where the stuff disappears right away and you can’t even roll around in it or dig a hole or anything. But a BIG DEAL snow day where everyone stays home and watches the weather man talk about blizzards on tv and mom makes frozen pizza because she can’t get the car out of the driveway to go to the grocery store to buy vegetables. (Yessssss!) Plus, I didn’t even get to the best part of all yet:

NO SCHOOL! Yesterday after lunch the principal made an announcement on the loud speaker that we kids all got to go home EARLY!! And then the next day there would be NO SCHOOL AT ALL. All the teachers and parents were talking about how big and scary the blizzard was going to be but I wasn’t scared at all. I was happy thinking about the the big fort I was going to burrow in all that snow tomorrow.
I LOVE BURROWING SO MUCH. Here’s how I do it: I pick the biggest pile of snow I can find. Then I start digging a hole with my hands. When it gets bigger I have to stick my head inside and I keep burrowing farther and farther until all that’s left are my legs and feet dangling out. It’s sooooo fun.



That night after eating my pizza I watched out the window waiting for my blizzard. I was afraid the weather man was wrong because for a long long time it was just super windy but not really that much snow coming down at all. My mom and dad made me go to bed but promised there would really be a lot of snow in the morning. Plus, I know that morning comes faster if you fall asleep. I even had a dream about talking snowmen and fairies and a crown made of icicles.

Then I woke up. I could hear my mom laughing and laughing downstairs like it was the funniest thing ever. I ran downstairs and she was pointing out the window at our back yard. There was so much snow you couldn't even see our car! And you could only see the tippity tops of our table and chairs that we sit at in the summer to roast marshmallows. Then we went to the back door and there was so much snow we couldn't even open it! It was craaaaazy. I couldn’t wait to go outside. So I put on my pink snowpants, my big puffy gloves and hat, and went out the front door with my daddy. Just then he picked me up and swung me in to the biggest pile of snow in the front yard! I tried to get up but I kept sinking down like a big heavy rock and it was hard to move. So what did I do next? I started burrowing!


This was going to be the best day ever.



Upcoming stories:

I Love Science
My Sister is Mean. And Really Cool. But Mostly Mean.
Daddy Says I’m a Spazz

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Getting My Hands Dirty

Setting arbitrary goals is never a good thing for me. I need looming deadlines, a big red circle on my calendar, and the internet watching to see if I follow through with what I said I'd do. In January I found myself saying something dumb like how I wanted to "challenge myself in new ways" this year. Well that means nothing until you find a way to quantify what exactly the word "challenge" means.

Behold:



Before you look at te site, see the word 5K and go all pffffffft on me, would you just look at the "What to Expect" page and consider how covered in filth I am going to get completing those obstacles? Go do a Google image search of "Dirty Girl Mud Run" and see what happens to the ladies that participate in these types of races.

Go ahead, I'll wait.

When I was asked to blog about my training for this race I have to admit I paused for a second. I believe the first three things that floated through my brain were "Climbing stuff is hard." "Did that say FIRE run?" and "Ow." But after the dust settled I realized that this is the perfect kind of challenge for me. Sure I can keep running farther and farther (and believe me, I WILL) but for the most part I know what to expect when it comes to running. I really have no idea how well I will do at something like this. Climbing, crawling, scaling walls and jumping though things like mud pits and bales of hay? That's stuff that people on reality teevee do, not me. I won't even go camping because I hate the idea of not showering in the morning.

So of course I said "yes."