You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." ...You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
- Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962)

God keep granting me the courage, strength, & determination to continue climbing my mountains.

Crazy Lazy

I love my Friday nights with my boys. We usually have a fun, greasy dinner and the options might possibly be a regular food item during the week for some families (frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, crinkly ore-ida french fries - or even pancakes & sausage). My 18 month old, Kelly, is my sous chef (and executive head banana eater). Everything in the kitchen is pointed to and claimed as being hot, even me, and I never have a hard time finding the cooking utensil or pan I need because they are always in the middle of my kitchen floor. I was spoiled with my first, Linc (5). He has never tried to dig through drawers, shelves, throw trash in the toilet (or completely taken apart cell phones), or touch cleaning supplies. I should take the time to venture and purchase every clip and clamp I could possibly find to prevent this little diesel (nickname offered by new meat head co-worker) from replacing every item in the house to another location...but, the child-proofability (made up word, I know) of these things usually keeps me out of the places I need to get into and then I end up in more trouble myself around this house than I need to be in. On today's agenda though: BUY A TOILET CLAMP. Or, I may have to call in a plumber monthly to clean out all of the weeble wobbles, star wars men, tiny rubber duckies, make-up tubes & even trash that keeps finding it's silly way in there, some how. Kisses to my Kelly. The coffee smells wonderful, so I'm off to drink a few cups. Lately, I'm in to taking care of myself, so I only made 4 cups. That diet of java, dark chocolate, cheese, smart water, vino & the occasional double cheesburger & fries from McD's caught up to me. The little bit of coffee I do drink now will definitely give me an extra boost for the bowling birthday party I get to go to later today....and keep my engines running long enough to help take care of some other boys in my family that need a little of my care, energy, & strength right now (Love you Dad & Houstie).

Happy Hearts

When you love someone, all your saved-up wishes start coming out.
~ by Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) ~


... I know I have saved-up wishes. Do you?

Office Space

At work this week, I am gearing up for an awesome new job with my company. Let's just say I'm in the lubricant business. Part of gearing up today required moving my office space at an exact time of 1:30 p.m. Oh, I dreaded it. Packing up stuff that I've accumulated for 4 years now? A forceful, yet healthy purge of "I might need that later" office supplies & unopened Christmas candles from 2005 (that I could definitely re-gift) occurred. Ahhh, next I will feng shui my little "office space". For the less fortunate, which seems to kind of be a growing number, our lovely office space is what most business folk relate to as meaning a desk within the droniest cubicle ever, or in my case , a quad pod of four desks with all of our backs facing a little round table we adorn with twizzlers, cupcakes, home made breads (my beau absolutely loves home made fixins and baked sweets), and, of course, chocolates - in particular, my fav, the peppermint pattie! I'm now sitting with three other gals, one of which I know well and have worked with (and trained) over the past 14 months. Same wicked and twisted sense of humor, so that's a definite settle. The other two will be cool in time (me, so positive), for sure, and it takes little time to really get to know someone you basically spend more time with than anyone during the whole year - think about it. Roughly, I'm going to spend 50 + hours a week with these gals, probably end up on some menstrual synchronization cycle because of it (hopefully I'm the strong pheromone leading this young crew), and listen to guy stories, and baby stories, and stories about husbands that husbands have no idea wives tell about them! Those are sometimes quite detailed & distracting by the way, but I always end up listening. And, I really do find time to work in the middle of all this chocolate eating and baby talking. Like someone once told me - networking is 1/3 of what gets you to where you need to be. I agree 100%.

Hail Mary Weekend

My entry for Saturday is being posted with today's since I ventured to South Bend, Indiana, at the last super moment of 6:00 a.m. to arrive the rival week Notre Dame basketball game versus Marquette which began with a tip-off sharply at noon. Britty (yes, I named my boyfriend's sexy & quite bossy british talking Garmin GPS box) got us there with time and spare to pick-up our 8th row tickets in Joyce (most awesome place for a bball game I've been to yet) and visit a questionable, but cozied with Notre Dame alum, "Between the Buns" pub to grab some greasy grub and shoot down an Irish car bomb & a Stella Artois (of course) in honor of my wonderful brother who hooked me up with the tickets. Thanks Bro. The game was sweet - ND 86. MU 83. Wanted to go to the Grotto, since that is a traditional must on every visit (I'm a bit superstitious too if I miss out on even a minute of meditation at such a Holy corner bowing mighty thought and prayer to those we love or loved), but decided to drive on back to Kentucky in time to eat even more carbs, sip wine, and talk about the day. It was definitely a great, unplanned, & well deserved day. Even wandered over to watch some running events at the annual Meyo Invitational at ND hosting premiere runners from all over the country. It's mind shattering to think the human body can press under 4:00 minutes for a mile. Are we all built with the same potential to clip a 4:00 mile, or are there just a lonely few? Hmmm. Life is just so darn amazing, as is the human mind & body - if pushed! "The will to win can not be beat". Right on. I believe in a big way that we can all be sub-4 in our own darn way.

Today - Super motivated from having seen some old MU team mates yesterday, I hit the trails this morning in 20 degrees and chapping wind to get back into gear for the triple crown of racing - fast approaching the Derby town in 4 short weeks. It hurt, good. Thanks JJ for sticking it out in the mud and cold and being my running buddy today - YOU ROCK BABY!! Yes, this year's race results will be much different than last year's triple, but hey, it's all fun to me (I say this, but am really one of those competitive psychos that scopes the field at every road race to check and see right about where I'm going to finish in the race. Yup, 6th. AND, if you are one of those people and know what I'm talking about, you are always dead on close to about where you will finish). Whatever. I'll be on the seeded side of the rope this year, but definitely shouldn't be. Need to eat better and train to show up.

Off to rock my youngest back to sleep.
Love the life juggle and every moment I catch myself in.

Happy Friday!

Today's Reminder:

"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand (or red for the cabby lovers) - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming, "oh yeah, baby, what a awesome ride!"