Bits and Pieces for a friday night

"Let's have a party!" says Isabella

"Okay, who's coming?" Mom asks

"Jesus, Eva, Gigi, and Mommy."

LOVE it that Jesus was at our party!

Isaiah found his feet on Tuesday. I always loved this with Izzy and it's just as much fun watching him grab onto them. He's very vocal these days too and I absolutely love listening to his little squeals.

One of my goals since Isaiah was born was to obviously get back into shape but I've always been a bit competitive with myself in my running. Always wanting to beat my time, run faster, longer, etc... I think I put so much pressure on myself that running was becoming a chore and giving me more stress than necessary. So my first race in Nov, I was determined to just enjoy myself... treat it as a normal run and enjoy the scenery.  I was successful and very proud of myself so my goal for 2009 was to enjoy running. To keep myself motivated by doing races but don't put pressure on times and speed, etc... especially since I am working on getting back in shape after having a baby.

My 1st race on the 1st was a good start but since then I've just not been motivated to get out because I know there's a distance I need to cover. I'm running a half-marathon on feb 8th and my long run this week needed to be at least 7 miles but I was aiming for 8. Then last night as I was re-reading about the Jeff Galloway (run/walk) method. Since realistically I know my time on the 8th will not be ideal and that I will not be as prepared as I should, I decided to try this method on a run today. Wow... what a difference! Mentally I felt great and physically too! I ran 8.8 miles and could have gone further if the treadmill I was on wasn't crazy (that's another story). So now I'm motivated and excited about running again and my 2009 running goal part 2 is to train for a marathon. I really want to run one while I'm home in the states this summer but so far, I haven't had any luck finding one so instead, I'll just begin preparing and as a last resort, I'll run the Macau Marathon in Dec.

So I have to laugh at this pic although it's not very clear. I somehow kick my ankles as I run without knowing it... to the point of causing myself to bleed. If you look closely on the left shoe, there's a nice patch of blood and on the right ankle the same.

Well... kids are in bed. Mike's still at work. I think I'll go read. Have a blessed day!