Country Music Marathon

I may be losing my mind. Seriously. I officially have signed up for the Country Music Half Marathon. It is going to be April 30th in Nashville, Tennessee. I will be running it with my cousin Liz and my sister-in-law Megan. A few other friends (Mere, Bethanny) may possibly be joining us as well! The trip began as a tiny spark of interest in Decemeber after hearing from a co-worker who was interested in running in it. The spark grew and grew as I researched and looked more into the race. I became excited thinking about running such a long and challenging distance. Finally at the end of December I along with my cousin Liz decided we would really do it. Liz has run 4 half marathons in the past so I am using her experience and training advice as much as I can. She is being a great sport about helping me get ready to run the 13.1 miles. Yep, thats right 13.1 miles! It will be a very hard feat but the goals and reasons I have for running it are very personal and I think it will be worth all the sweat and effort put into it.

I have been running since my freshman year in college. I have been pretty consistent over the years but have had brief periods when I stopped (the longest being probably 6 months). I usually run about 4-5 miles 4-5 times a day on my treadmill. Though I am used to running I have not pushed myself to increase my speed much or my distance. I do not run outside as much as I should. This is one of the good things of running the half--that am now changing what has been a standard work-out for me. I find it fun pushing myself to make a quicker time or run a longer distance. The hill training is also something I am working on, which I gotta be honest and admit it is hard!

Currently I am running about 4 days a week. I run on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. I run the longer runs on Saturdays. I am building up each week by adding a mile to my distance. I plan on running 6 miles on Saturday. Up until now I have been averaging about 4-5 miles per run, sometimes running 3. My plan is to get to where I can run about 10 miles before the race.

I will try to keep everyone updated on how the training is going and what I am doing as I go. Wish me luck!!

The Golden Rule.

I know we have all heard it and learned it when we were younger, The Golden Rule: treat others as we wish to be treated. I love this rule. I believe in this rule. I try* (do I make mistakes, yes) to live my life by this rule. My concern is, is that not many others are. Okay, so I would like to give credit to my 3 readers, you are probably following this rule because I probably am close friends with you or related to you. And in that case, I know all my friends and probably most of my family follow this rule. It is a bit swayed since I chose my friends and I hit the lottery on the family. However, I digress.

I am baffled to see that so many people do not follow this rule and treat others with disrespect, attitude, or unkindness. It is appalling to me to see people who are so selfish they just don't care about others or how they feel. Usually these are the people who seem to be the first to cry and complain when they feel they are being disrespected or treated unfairly. If you are not happy with how others are treating you, or find that there is a common "theme" with the way others interact and or communicate with you (that you do not like) it may be time to turn the mirror around and check ourselves. Our intentions may never be to be rude or come across in a way that may put others on the defense, however, the way we are communicating may be coming off differently than we had hoped or intended. I work with many teenagers who feel that they are so often mistreated and others are always fighting them. Usually it is easy for us to see a pattern and realize that it is directly related to how they themselves are communicating and treating others. They are not following the Golden Rule. Though this is a good example and yes, this is a population that has issues (which I work with), but I see it out in our society as well.

How can we have gotten to a point where we forget the Golden Rule and do not treat others with the respect we should. The term "you gotta give respect to get it" has somehow been skewed so others think of it in a selfish way and don't start with their part. They have to be respectful first. I believe that the way you treat others is a direct reflection of the way you will be treated. If you are getting good feedback from others, have positive relationships, then you are probably doing it right. But again, I stress that if you are having issues frequently with others, check yourself and see if you making a small adjustment to the way you are communicating can completely change the relationship. Its very difficult to accept that we may be making mistakes or have faults, it is a very humbling thing to admit there are certain areas we need to work on. But it is worth it to have satisfying relationships with others. This goes with not just communicating but with anything in life. Your intentions may never be bad, but if others are taking it differently than you wanted or had hoped, you have a responsibility to fix the problem and make the change so that it doesn't happen again. At least that is if you care about others and their feelings.

Again, it all goes back to one simple rule "treat others as you want to be treated". It starts with you. Not them.

Busy + Writers Block = Bad for Blogging.

Along with a bad case of writers block, I seem to have hit the ground running in 2011 without much time to take a breath. I feel like I have been busier than usual at work and it seems to be the same in my personal life. You would think with all the craziness that I would have a lot to talk about but this is not so true!
Just thought I would give a quick update to what we have been up to lately....

-I am training for my first half marathon which I am running in the end of April with my cousin Liz. That will be 13.1 miles!! I have been doing my best to build up my stamina and train for quicker and longer runs than I usually do. All has been going well except I am a big baby and don't like running outside (oh the treadmill and Oprah are such a nice combination). I have plans to start running more outside soon, though. We are running the Country Music Half Marathon which is in Nashville April 30th. Stay tuned for more details, I will continue to keep you updated on how it is going....

-My mother recently had surgery (nothing major or too serious) but I went home during the snow/ice stuff to stay with and take care of her. I had a great relaxing weekend in Atlanta with her a couple weekends ago for this. Thankfully everything went okay and she is doing great!

-During the snow/ice period we had a lot of fun playing in it with our neighbors Mitch and Amanda. We went sledding and busted our butts (literally, I did) and hands and faces (poor Mitch!). It was a blast and well worth the injuries!

-Have had a couple fun girls' nights over the past two nights. I never forget how awesome my girls are and how lucky I am to have such amazing friends to hang out and spend time with. Oh yeah, and I learned I can't drink too much Champagne punch, it may start out sweet and yummy but it will leave you feeling burned and like crap later! lol!

-Matt and I have been having a lot of fun date nights thanks to the different sponsors from Christmas, aka people who gave us gift cards. We have seen a couple movies and eaten at some great restaurants. I am loving this special time with the hubs. OH yeah, and don't believe the critic reviews, True Grit was boring and we loved Country Strong!

-Lastly, and MOST important, my Auburn Tigers are the NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!! We were not able to make it to the game, however, we had a great time watching it while being snowed in with Mitch and Amanda. After the win, we rolled the tree in our front yard just like Toomer's Corner. It feels great to be the CHAMPIONS! I am so proud to be part of the AUburn family. I believe in Auburn and love it!

Hope you all have been doing well and I will try to no longer be such a slacker on the blog. In case you care! haha! Stay tuned for more updates and blogs!

Happy New Year!

I can't believe another year has passed and it is now 2011! That sounds like some space-age number, but I guess it shouldn't, since it is now the year we are living. 2010 was amazing and we had a lot of wonderful memories, but I have a great feeling about 2011! We already have so many plans and trips scheduled for this year--I can't wait!

To ring in the new year we went to our friend OJ and Phoenix's house for a bash. We had a blast--as usual!! Here are some pictures from the night!

A few fun pics

While all of the photos I have recently taken are on my home computer, I thought I would do a preview post of what we have been up to all weekend. These are from my iPhone, so bear with
the quality! Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Gotta show some love to the greatest dogs ever, Max and Gracie. Check out Gracies Elvis look here.











Saturday I fixed a feast and recruited some friends to eat it with us. I made ham, collard greens, black eyed peas, mashed potatoes, and cornbread. All homeade and delicious. We should be getting lots of good luck for the year 2011!

Earlier in the week Matt sent me the beautiful flowers. What a great guy! He sent some to my mom also!