Thankful Thursday

This week I'm thankful for:

-being back at blogging :)

-Isla attending a morning of Junior Kindergarten (how did that happen?!?!)

-voting with these ladies

-these lovely Toms from a thrift store! Holla!

-morning runs in sunshine

-and cutie cute tiny boots

National Running Day!

(let's pretend we celebrate this nationally here in Canada too, shall we?)

i recently watched this little gem:

i've been reflecting on my running journey since i started last July.

less than 9 months ago, i couldn't run back to my car in a parking lot without losing my breath.
fast forward to a week and a half ago:
i just finished my first 10k!

i signed up in the fall to do the Ottawa Race Weekend 10k.
i trained in the fall, (and then took a little break due to the ridiculousness that was the Ottawa winter),
and then picked up my training in April.

i am so proud of what i have accomplished.

my sister caught this picture of me in the sea of 12,000(!) runners.

{can you spot me?}

i was able to finish in 1:05:41.

a personal best!

then, this past weekend, i did a mud hero with 9 other co-workers.

so so so so fun!

the mud hero was definitely the more fun of the two (to be expected i suppose),
but the sense of accomplishment i felt when i crossed the finish line of that 10k?

amazing.

i have become addicted:
.to running.
.to the running community in ottawa.
.to racing.

it's wonderful and exciting and inspiring.

i am a runner and an athlete.



and i am a proud big sister!!
my sister ran the marathon the day after me.
some words to describe what it looked like to see those marathoners come around the 38km mark:

crazy . alarming . emotional . disturbing . inspiring . motivational . frightening

{here she is pre-race}

{i have medal envy!}

Thankful Thursday

this week:

-watching Isla fall in love with puzzles!! girl after my own heart!

{all by herself!}

-having my mom visit this past weekend

-talking to Auntie Rozzy on speakerphone and having Megan shouting "HI! HI! HI! HI! HI!"

       (we love our Auntie Rozzy!)

-family day pyjama day dance parties!

-my job

-having my lovely friend and co-worker Becky babysit last night... and i totally forgot to leave any kind of putting Isla to bed instructions... whoops! she feels like such an old friend that somehow i just assumed she knew the bedtime routine... even though it was her first time at our house! Sorry Becky!

-date night that turned into free meal date night because they forgot our order in the kitchen! i have no problem spending an hour chatting with my husband and get a free meal for it!!!

Thankful Thursday

this week I am thankful for:

-these lovely lasses. sigh.

-a 30th Birthday weekend away (for my bestie!) with 6 ladies and a baby: 

time to sleep in, eat good food, laugh, shop and reconnect

-Olympics!!!! Yay!!

-My mom coming in on the train today

-Isla. Here are some things she has said this week:

           "look, my breathing is dusty"  (in the cold)

           "Mommy? When I'm a woman, can I drive your car?"

           "You know everything don't you?" (to her Gramma Kiki)

           "Uncle Ryan is silly, huh?... And Uncle Noah... And Mike"

           "You came back!" (to me after I was away for the weekend)

         

Thankful Thursday

Thankful for:

-friends celebrating Thom turning 30 this past week :)

-Sunday mornings with rowdy worship and dancing and fun fun fun!

-seeing Isla run over and sit with Isaac and Auntie Mary on Sunday morning

-cuddles on the couch later in the day with my girlies

-getting out running after an almost 3 month hiatus! 

-also thankful for no longer blistering frostbiting-ly cold temperatures! sheesh!

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for:

-a great retreat with the young adults last weekend--Megan and I joined them and had an amazing time, we laughed, we cried, we ate some good food!

-Megan doing awesome on the drive! Our first trip with someone other than Thom... Thanks to Uncle Noah for braving the drive with us!

-the school we chose for Isla to attend in the fall-- and the way God confirms decisions by having pt's rave about the school... total divine appointment!

-Breakfast date with Isla before going to check out her school

-New friends

-dinner out with my co-RNs-- love working with those ladies!

-and last but certainly not least! that my nephew is awesome.

yup, that's an 18 month old on skis.

no big deal.

Books read in 2013

So... my goal of reading 40 books this past year was apparently *ahem* a little ambitious.

I think it actually wasn't that unattainable but Thom put a Sudoku book in my stocking last Christmas, and while I breezed through through the first three quarters of the book, the last section, the diabolical section, had me stumped and I would pick it up and put it down and then pick it up and then threaten to throw it out and then pick it up again.

Finally in the second week of December, I tossed it. Unfinished, but no regrets on that one!

(oh and let's not forget that new "Harry Potter book" debacle!)

I think getting wrapped up in the Hunger Games trilogy really helped push me to stick to reading and let the Sudoku go for good.

Here is the completed reading list of 2013:

1-Loving Your Kids on Purpose

2-Animal Stories

3-This Will Be Difficult to Explain: And Other Stories

4-The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

5-Her Fearful Symmetry

6-"Who Could That Be at This Hour?"

7-Almost Amish

8-That Scatterbrain Booky

9-With Love From Booky

10-As Ever, Booky

11-The Help

12-The Power of Three

13-The Real James Herriott: A Memoir of My Father

14-Half Magic

15-The No. 1 Ladies Detective Angency

16-Castle in the Air
17-The House at the End of Hope Street

18-The Dog of the South

19-An Irish Country Doctor

20-The Hunger Games

21-Catching Fire

22-Mocking Jay

just over half of my goal.  Wop wop.

feels a bit lacking.  

I'm going to basically keep the same goal, but up it to 41--basically just so it feels like a new resolution.

My faves from this past year:

Fiction: The Hunger Games Trilogy 

Non-Fiction: Loving Your Kids on Purpose

I honestly thought I had read a lot more non-fiction, but I think I did some major starting and not finishing!!

On the list to read this year:

-A Wrinkle in Time Quintet

-A Million Little Ways

-Finding Ultra

-The Harem Midwife

Any more suggestions? 

Also, I am loving my new Kobo and love love love that I can download books from the library to read on it!