Running Disney - The Prequel

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks ago, but...2 weeks ago I ran my first 5k! Being the huge Disney fanatic I am, of course I had to sign up for a Disney race to be my first. Another good motivator was the cost, as Disney races don't come cheap. I know local 5k's in my area are around $25, while the Disney 5k was $50. Totally motivated me to train and be prepared to run -- I was going to finish this thing in a decent time! I signed up back in like August of last year or so, I'd have to look at my checkbook to give you an actual date. I started with the Couch 2 5k program and loved it! I definitely recommend it to anyone that is starting running & in good health or given the go-ahead from their doctor. I was a true Couch 2 5k'er, (is that a real phrase? If not, I just invented it!) seeing as how I have hated running my whole life. But I was ready to start something -- get moving, get healthy, show my kids how to set and accomplish a goal! So I ran.

Now let me just break here to point out that if I found time to run, you can. No excuses. I have 2 kids, 6 and 2. My husband and I both work full time, and we do not have daycare. So if one of us is at work, the other is home with one or both kids. We have one car, so I had to run near home, not on any cool running trails. And yes, I have sidewalks near my neighborhood but I live in the country where the speed limit on the main road is 40 and consists mostly of thru traffic & semi trucks.

We would get home from work and I would go out and run before dinner, or I would run in the morning before work. On Thursdays & Fridays when I am home in the morning, I walk my daughter to school & then take my 2 year old on a run with me. We use a stroller I got on a local for sale group, not a fancy jogging stroller but one that is about to bite the dust. I probably don't run as fast as I could with the stroller but point is that I run. Tracking your run is so important in the beginning -- you can see your accomplishments from day 1! I know we all got really sick in November, my husband got pneumonia & I had bronchitis, then Sophie got RSV & Delaney got an ear infection. I could hardly wait for that month to be over!! I think I ran maybe twice in November. I don't think I ever officially finished the C25k program, I started using RunKeeper to track my distance but I wish it would let me shuffle my songs! I ran my first full 3.1 miles 2 weeks before the Disney 5k, and I did it pushing the stroller in 40 minutes. I know 40 minutes isn't the best time, but I wasn't running for the best time. I was running because I could.

 

 

Running Disney - Race Day coming soon!

Now it Feels Like Christmas!

So Sunday morning was a huge hit in our house. Why, you ask? Elmer & Trixie FINALLY made their debut, after 3 long days of questions about why they hadn't arrived yet. They seem to have started a tradition of bringing us a North Pole breakfast upon their arrival, so I think they were waiting for a morning we were all home.

So Delaney woke me up Sunday & was so excited that they elves had finally made it to Florida! I've been sick for almost 2 weeks, and spend most of my free time as of late trying to hack up one of my lungs, so I was completely exhausted from being up coughing until 2am the night prior so I was thankful she was content to pick a movie and let me get a little more rest since the rest of the house was still sleeping. We watched/listened to "The Secret of the Wings" & once Sophie got up we had our North Pole breakfast & visited with our new company.

Elmer & Trixie Jingle have arrived!

 

Santa usually prints his letter...his printer must be on the fritz!

 

Sophie loves donuts!

 

So does Delaney, but she might be too cool to let you know that...

 

 Then we woke up today to 2 elves climbing our Christmas tree (thankfully no ornaments were harmed in the process) to engage in a lightsaber battle. I bet they loved that our lightsabers we made at the Orlando History Museum weren't too heavy for them!

So as a co-worker posted on my husband's facebook page -- "Now it feels like Christmas!" Let the elf hi-jinx begin!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

Ok, I know, I know!! You're all saying, "Seriously? Can we just have Thanksgiving first?!" Well, as most of you know, I work in the world of retail. It's Christmas time, for many reasons. 1 - I listen to that CD thing back in the Christmas section where you can "sample" the Christmas music. ALL. DAY. LONG. 2. This coming weekend we are kicking off our fun, old fashioned Christmas by: seeing the Osbourne Light Spectacle at Hollywood Studios Friday (I love to see the lights when it's actually COLD out -- yay!!), possibly a visit to see Jolly Old St. Nick himself Saturday & decorating the interior of the house the rest of the weekend. We will be working all Thanksgiving weekend so we can't do our decorating then like a lot of people do, and personally, I don't feel 1 month is enough time to enjoy the tree & everything that comes with it! So since my husband is awesome he lets me get in the Christmas spirit early! I know the visit with Santa is a little early, but we go to see him at a very popular location & with our crazy schedules, I would rather go early than be stuck in an hour line.

Elmer & Trixie "go fish"

 

However, the whole reason of this post was to talk about a few visitors I anticipate will arrive in several weeks. Just like many of you, we have an Elf that spends the holidays with us. We actually have two, one for each kiddo, which works out nicely because the elves seem to have a lot more fun together (& Sophie is probably trouble enough to warrant an elf to herself for reports back to Santa). I know a lot of you follow our Elves through Facebook, but since I have a private facebook page, it's hard to share pictures you might want to show friends & now with the explosion of Pinterest, you won't be able to link to any ideas you love unless they are somewhere a little more accessible.

So -- make sure you subscribe to my blog & invite your friends that have kids & might be interested! Elf happenings will be getting posted (I can't promise daily, like I said, Sophie DOES warrant her own elf) & I'm sure we will have plenty to talk about once Elmer & Trixie arrive!

 

May The Force Be With You This Weekend

Around my house, we are gearing up for a little something called "Star Wars Celebration VI." I think the cool kids call it "CVI," but in my role as mom I am not allowed to be cool and therefore have no idea what to call it other than "that big Star Wars party." My 5 year old gets it. So, Star Wars Celebration is in Orlando this weekend!! I have never been, but it was in Orlando at the Convention Center 2 years ago and here it is again so we are all going this time around. Basically it's a HUGE, Star Wars only convention. Lots of merchandise, exclusives, toys, clothing, etc. Also a lot of famous people in town, tons of people will be at the convention in costume & there will be Droid races & other fun stuff going on. I considered making costumes for all of us, but just back in May we got our new Her Universe shirts & I really wanted to wear that. Her Universe is Ashley Eckstein's company, and she sells, among other things, Star Wars apparel exclusively for females!! A huge hit in a world geared towards men. I love my Princess Leia & Luke shirt -- "Looking for love in Alderaan places."

Will be following up with a recap and hopefully lots of pics from Friday at some point this weekend!

Box of Kleenexes, anyone?

Today was our first day of Kindergarten. And actually, I have some tissues to spare, because the first day wasn't as traumatic as I had envisioned. Delaney was fine, and I made it out of the classroom before one or two tears made their escape. I was sad to see her stay in the classroom, but glad she was brave & was excited to be there. I am really excited about her school, because she gets "specials" or whatever they call them nowadays for an hour each day, except Wednesday, which is early release day. I love that she will get her fill of so many things she loves, like art, music & playing outside. I am still counting down the minutes until it's time to go pick her up though!!

And in other exciting news, I am on week 2 of the Couch to 5k program and I love it. I was actually really disappointed last night because I got ready to run, headed outside and it WAS NOT raining. I got 2 houses away and it started raining pretty heavy so I turned back and finished the day's program in my living room which wasn't as great as it would have been if I got in a real workout. The funniest part was watching Sophie watch me, and when I would run in place, she would run in circles around the family room. Silly goose!

My costume for the Royal Family 5k is almost complete -- I decided rather than to order a sparkle skirt, I would make my own tutu for this event. I'm happy to say my tutu is coming along great!! I love it, but I'm going to have to wait until around November or December to finish it because I'm hoping once I start running regularly that I'll drop a little weight and have to take in the elastic for the waistband. I think the only other thing I need is my Pascal applique! Once my outfit is done and together, there will definitely be pictures!!

Hopefully Sophie will start taking naps again and maybe we'll see a little more of each other!

Run Like A Princess

This is a big week!! I am going to start my Couch to 5k program & prep for the Royal Family 5k during the Disney World Princess Marathon, which is on February 23rd. I am truly going from the couch to a 5k, so I am really excited there is an IPhone app for this! Is there anyone that has tried the app yet? I haven't really looked at it yet because I was waiting to actually start running & didn't want to mess up the program if I "previewed" it and started early. I bought my new shoes at Kohl's this weekend with a 15% off coupon and here in the lovely state of Florida, it was tax-free weekend so I was really excited -- not only about finding a pair of shoes I think have awesome arch support, but awesome arch support at a great price!! Friday is pay day, so I am DEFINITELY registering for the 5k on Friday so I am 100% motivated to make sure I can run this race!

More posts will be coming about my race preparation, as well as my oldest daughter's 1st day of kindergarten (only 2 weeks away!!) & a lot of other fun we have going on this month!!

There Aren't Enough Scoundrels In Your Life

So I'm not sure if my husband fully approves, but I've become a little bit immersed in Star Wars in the last week or two. Usually on the nights we are actually home together, we watch an episode of our favorite show on DVD (Psych, currently on Season 3) because I am so tired by the end of the night we both know I won't make it through anything longer. However, seeing as how we are going to CVI (Celebration 6 -- a huge Star Wars convention) in August, I thought maybe I should brush up on my Star Wars knowledge and asked him if we could watch the movies. I told him to pick which one to start with (Such a seemingly easy decision -- but do we start when Anakin was a boy? Watch all the way through to Episode 3? Start with Luke & Leia's story, then go back to 1 through 3?) My husband says he likes to start with IV, A New Hope, so that's where we began. As I mentioned earlier, I can't make it through much more than an hour so we actually split each movie into 2 nights but I am proud to say we watched all 6 movies! I don't know what it was, but I really loved them this time around. Loved Han & Leia's story more, used the Force to will Anakin to change his actions this time around (I'm sorry to say the Force was not strong with me), and had second thoughts about not making costumes for CVI as I drooled over Padme's gorgeous wardrobe. But I know I'll be excited to wear my Alderaan shirt from Her Universe & since I'm only going one day this year that's ok.

Then I went a little crazy on Etsy. I was supposed to be online setting up my shop, but I did a search for Star Wars and walked away from my computer with this little ditty on it's way...

I put them on the car yesterday and can I just say that they are so much cooler than the generic stick family that was previously residing there.

Then I went ahead and got these that I've had pinned on Pinterest for a while -- 

 So awesome!! They are perfect for us. And now it's time for this Padawan to make her way to bed because my kids don't know the meaning of "sleep in." Good night!