I'm a Runner?

Update: Rudy is still in his crate during the day...we have officially decided that he has a case of the winter blues/boredom, and that's the reason for his acting up. See, last year at this time we had just gotten him and he was still getting used to his new setting and didn't know life any differently than Chris working late and not going outside to play a whole lot. But this year, he was playing outside at least an hour a day, most of that with Chris, and he has gotten used to Chris being around a lot more. Now that it's winter and busy season, Chris isn't here to take him out and play rough with him, and besides that it's freezing outside! That's our conclusion...so since he doesn't seem to mind it too much, he may just be in his crate during the days until busy season is over...

So a couple weekends ago we had our friends Emily, Rob, Jen and Nate over for dinner. Emily made 2 pot pies from scratch (I helped chop the chicken lol), and Jen brought over a chocolate pecan pie...both of which were DELICIOUS! We had such a great time...both of those girls are two of my oldest and closest friends, and it's so great that the 3 guys get along so well...I just love all of them!

The following weekend (last weekend), one of Chris's best friends, Collin, and his girlfriend and our good friend Jodi came to visit. They came to visit a couple months ago and were not dating...and I guess you could say that our house is just where the magic happens :) It was so good to spend an evening and an entire day with them! I did a lot of cooking (Saturday night was Mexican night and we had enchiladas and tortilla chicken soup!...so amazing if I may say so myself!), and we just had a great time! And to end the weekend we watched the Colts game (I made blueberry muffins from scratch and we had blue drinks, which turned out to be very gross, and we had Touchdown Sundae ice cream!), and of course the Colts won and are headed to the SuperBowl!

Last night we spent the evening with our good friends Ashley and Scottie, and their adorable almost-two-year-old Parker. Chris taught him how to play the harmonica, haha! We had dinner and watched a movie, and we left feeling so blessed by all of our good friends in our life.

So over the last 2 weeks I have also begun training for the mini-marathon that Chris and I are running in May with his mom, aunt, and 2 cousins. When we first signed up I wasn't too excited about it, if I'm being honest. In fact, I was thinking...I guess I know the day I'm going to die. But the first time I ran I did a 5K no problem. The next time I kicked it up to 4 miles...again, didn't seem to bad. Then I ran 4 miles again and I would've kept going except that I had a BodyPump class to go to. This week on Monday I ran 5 miles without much of a problem, and on Thursday Chris and I ran 4 miles together when he got home from work. My plan for tomorrow is to see if I can make it to at least 5.5 miles while Chris plays racquetball with Scottie. Once I get up to 6.5 I'll be half way there! I think that is going to be my goal by the end of next week, given I can do 5.5 tomorrow. It's amazing, though, thinking back over the last 5 years of my running "career"...Chris started me on this a little over 4 years ago when he wanted to me to do a 5K with him at IU (Hoosiers Outrun Cancer). I agreed, but it turned out that I did not train as much as I should have, and I had to walk part of it. The next year we did it again and my goal was to run the whole thing...and I did! The following year, Chris's grandpa had just passed away from lung cancer, so we ran it for him and ran the whole thing again. But thinking back, I remember training so much and still feeling like I could barely make it running the whole thing. We did the Susan G. Koman run this past April and ran the whole thing, but was tired. I think, though, that right now I am in some of the best shape of my life, and I am able to do do it a little easier. So wish me luck, because on February 20 I am going to run the Polar Bear Run downtown...5 miles...in the cold...possibly by myself...so that will be a partial self-test. Who knew I was a runner?!