They like me, they really really like me!

Well I have made it through my first sememster of teaching after a 10 year "break". It was a fun day and I was thoroughly spoiled from start to finish! I am looking forward to my winter break and catching up on household stuff, scrapbook, time with family etc. My students sent me off in style yesterday. Thanks to them (and their parents) I could easily enjoy a FREE day that looks a little like this:

Head out the door and enjoy Starbucks, a GRANDE coffee AND a muffin and then I could make it to my 10:00 massage at Massage Envy. After that hour of relaxation I could then head to one of my favorite places, Barnes and Noble and pick out not just one book, but quite possible 3 or 4 thanks to my gift cards! Whew by then I will need a little nourishment so off to Pei Wei where I could have lunch and buy lunch for a friend!! Then I could head to Firewheel Shopping area and have my pick of places to shop and pick up something cute to wear when I head back to work. Just when you think this day of free fun is over, it's not, I can end the day quenching my thirst on a route 44 diet strawberry limeade!!! Oh and to top it off I have enough chocolate in my house right now to soothe the savage beast of about 50 PMSing women!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Give me a call if you have a chocolate emergency, I'm your gal!!

So for this chic that LOVES gifts and LOVES free stuff, yesterday was great! Just when I thought it couldn't get any better Chris, in his usual style, topped it all. He fixed a very nice "you made it through half the year" dinner. Complete with steak, twice baked potatoes, sugar snap peas, rolls and cheesecake! He's so awesome!

To celebrate being on break I stayed up past 10:00 and actually watched a movie!

So I guess those little critters aren't so bad after all! (Just kidding, they are sweet) or they are just worried about their report cards and thought they better put in a last minute bribe. Ha!!

Blog worthy!!!

Have you had this stuff? I started thinking about the foods out there that I can't have in the house because I will eat them til I am sick and thought I should share some of that list with you.

• crunch and munch ( I only buy this ONCE a year when I go to S. Padre. Crunch and Munch and the beach, good times!)


• hot tamales, I am out of control with these babies


• the peanut butter cookies with hershey kisses in the middle. I have embarrassed myself with my ablility to eat these in mass quantities.


• smarties, I firmly believe that eating these by the pound each Halloween increases my IQ


• mini-snickers


• a sweet cantaloupe (I had to add something healthy)

I am sure there are more.

Ok anyway! I am adding another item to that list and that is the cornfetti that is pictured above. Man that's good stuff. I don't have many friends, but the ones I have are really THE BEST!!

I just happened to mention to my friend on Tuesday night about how next time she goes to downtown McKinney could she grab me some cornfetti from the quaint little shop that sells it. I didn't give it another thought and then Thursday night Chris walks through the door with a giant bag of cornfetti that my friend gave him to deliver home. Chris can testify, I was sooo happy! I promptly hid it under the cabinet from the sugar monster in my house (Jessica) so I wouldn't have to share! I accidently left out today and she quickly spotted it, so now I gotta share! :)

I FINISHED!!!!

Well my fingers are about the only part of my body that isn't hurting at the moment, however they took about 4 hours to thaw out.

So my morning began at 5:30 as I got up and got my running shoes on asking them to carry the furthest they ever have. I ate some food, not real sure what to eat for maximum performance so I just fueled up with a hodgepodge of foods including a diet coke (real runners would be appalled) to keep that nasty caffeine headache at bay. I headed to my sisters house to ride downtown with her and her husband for the big race. We parked with ease and got inside the American Airlines center for warmth and a potty break, with the rest of the 15,000 runners.
Adrienne (sister) and I walked Doug to the starting point for the full marathon and sent him on his happy way.

We still had an hour to wait til the half marathon began so we headed back to the car to get out of the cold and crowds. We chit chatted til about 8:45 and then went back out to brave the cold. Before we got out of the car an agreement was made, that I know will be kept. See all this idea of the half marathon began about December 30th of 2007 when two goofy sisters were sitting around discussing resolutions. We had just finished the relay and had fun doing that, then we watched Doug finish his 2nd marathon and that is always inspiring. So one of us threw out the idea of going for the half marathon on '08 and we chuckled and said "why not". Now before you think we are actually, die hard follow through on our commitment people, we are SO NOT, but there was one other person in the room that heard that conversation that clearly is of that crazy personality, Doug, and he would not hear of us NOT following through on this commitment. So the sister pack that was made this morning is that no New Year's resolutions will be discussed between sisters, well at least not in the presence of Doug, EVER AGAIN!!

We made our way to the starting line and waited in the wind and the cold for the start. It's just AMAZING how many people take part in this event. I think 6000 ran the Half Marathon.
It's always a little anti climatic when you hear the starting gun, because it takes awhile to actually get 6000 people across one starting point. We were off for 13.1 miles of running fun. Adrienne and I stuck together til we hit a hill about mile 4 and then we went our separate ways. I think my few years of Atlanta running still helps me on these Texas Hills or should we say inclines! After that it was just me, no music, no buddies, just me and a sea of strangers all asking their body to do something difficult. I love the people watching, it's amazing to see some that have a stride that looks painful with each step and others that are fluid runners that look lean and mean. It's inspiring to see the people in a wheel chair as they ask their arms to do the same work I am asking of my legs and feet. I saw two blind runners that were running with guides. The level of trust the blind person must have in their guide must be amazing.

So I overall I felt good, it was so cold and my legs never seemed to lose their tight grip and warm up for me. My feet were great, which I was extremely grateful for, once the feet start to go it gets nasty! Things were smooth sailing to mile 9, then I am convinced that someone was moving the mile marker flags further and further apart, my stomach started growling, and the grip on my hamstrings was starting to tighten. I am kinda goofy because I don't like to stop and walk through aid stations so I know that I wasn't really hydrating myself very well, I grabbed a gatorade from one table and drank and ran, spilling most of it on me, but still refusing to stop. At mile 10 a small miracle happened, one fella was passing out jolly ranchers, I grabbed one and it was the best jolly rancher EVER. It tasted really really good and served as a great distraction from the thoughts of just wanting to be finished.

Next thing I knew I could hear the roar of the crowd as I neared the finished. This is such a neat thing. I knew my mom and dad and sweet husband and kids were waiting somewhere in that line and freezing their little bottoms off, so I had to keep going. I spotted them quickly and saw the sweet sign Chris and the kids made me, this of course brought tears and just the final push I needed to finish! I crossed the finish line at 2 hours and 25 minutes! My goal was somewhere between 2:30 to 2:40, so I am quite happy about that.

I made it home and got in a warm bath and promptly feel asleep! I woke myself up snoring in the bath tub! How funny is that!

I am so glad it's done and my legs are still letting me know that they gave me their all, but that should get better soon. I am very happy that it's over and I am very happy that I did it.

If you are still actually reading this long post, you may feel like you just ran a marathon! ha

It's the final FINAL countdown

Now I am down to the wire, only 6 days left til I run The Half. I am ready to be done with this. I know the race will be fun, as fun as 13.1 miles can actually be. Not much I can do at this point. I plan to run a little this week. The best part of this week is that I am pretending that I need to do some "carb" loading over the 6 days so it's pretty much a free for all in the eating department! It will be sad that I will have to say yes, I ran 13.1 miles and yet still managed to gain 13.1 pounds!!

IN other news, we put up our Christmas tree on Saturday. This is my favorite night of the holiday season. We all get our jammies on, put up the tree and then have hot chocolate and cookies and watch a Christmas movie. Elf was the movie of choice. It's always a given that my kids (and Chris) will rewind the part when Buddy gets hit by the taxi cab, over and over and over and laugh hysterically. That's doesn't seem like the Christmas spirit to me!

I always get teary eyed when we put up the cute little ornaments the kids have made over the years. The ones with pictures usually bring out the tears. Chris just laughs and shakes his head at me, Joshua, he can't stand it when I cry so he said to Jessica, "quick do something funny, she is starting to cry!"

On a side note, i haven't had a quote of the week in a long time however today something was said to me that I felt was worth repeating.
Ok, so I am cleaning the house today and Joshua comes in when I am mopping the kitchen floor and says, "man, mom your working hard."

"Yes, I am just trying to get the house clean, it needed it." I respond thinking how nice it was that he noticed my hard work...

Joshua replies, "Hmmm, maybe you should change your name from LeRay to LeMaid."

I didn't have much of a response on that one, he went right on back outside to play.

It's the final countdown...

Only 14 days til I have to run 13.1 miles. Am I ready? Not really. Have I stuck to my training schedule? Not so much. However I am still going to give it my best shot. In true fashion, I plan to do a little "cramming" training here at the end. I don't think that is how it's supposed to work but oh well.

Refreshed

Greetings from Big Cedar Lodge outside of Branson MO. It's beautiful here. Chris had a conference here this week with fellow education ministers from around the country and I got to tag along. It has been wonderful few days of doing what I do best: a whole lotta nuthin! Being the always thoughtful man that I don't deserve, Chris booked a massage, manicure and pedicure for me for the day after our arrival. I have felt like a new woman since then! When the massage therapist commented that my shoulders were a wreck, she then asked what I did for a living. I answered that I taught fourth grade she chuckled and said, that explained it. I tried to explain to Chris that 1 hour massages may become a necessary part of my returning to work. He just laughed!

This place is really beautiful and gussied up for the holidays. We have enjoyed getting some time away together. We have eaten, hiked, eaten, played putt putt, eaten and we even went running together for the first time ever! (He's much faster than me! which didn't make me happy, you know I like to win!) Meanwhile my children are safely tucked away at the PK Ranch, which is their grandparents home, experiencing as much spoiling as I am just in a different form!

We head home tomorrow and it's back to reality for me (sorta since I just have 2 days to work til Thanksgiving break) I am ready to see my babies! I also have to admit in some small way I am ready to see MOST of those 22 little 4th grade creatures that call me teacher! They will be happy to have a rested, less haggard looking Mrs. Havard to deal with on Monday!

PICTURES TO COME LATER!

Overload

Joshua earned a reward for being respectful at school! (He gets that from his father! Not me)



If you know me you will think this is funny. Our school has a contest 2 times a year to see which class can walk/run the most laps. Winning class gets the golden shoe trophy. Well as you can see here my class is catching on to my "winning is everything" attitude!! ha!


Trick or Treat!!

My life in pictures!

Ok I have almost too much to blog about and many different topics in my head to write about

here a few:

• Halloween decorations gone overboard. Why?


• How many times do I say "I just need more time in the day" and today I have it and I still want more.


• Chicken tenders and running 9 miles don't mix! (BUT I DID RUN 9 MILES!)


• Why does Jessica have so much stuff in her room?


• Why do people get petty about stupid stuff and try to ruin my day?

So if you have a strong desire to have me write more on any of the random topics, feel free to let me know. If not I will leave you with the titles and your imagination can fill in the rest.