Fitness Friday!!

I’ve been meaning to start this little series for a while!  I have 30 minutes free and I’m going to document some of what I’ve been up to.

Last year, I documented my 10k training weekly.  I have exercised very regularly since the Cowtown 10k last February, but haven’t done another official run/race.  I started a 12-week Half Marathon Training plan on December 4th and I am proud of myself thus far.

I ran 47 miles in December.  I ran while we were in Arkansas for Christmas, and at Gram’s house in Pilot Point on Christmas Eve.  It has become a priority for me.  Me?  Yes, me!  The one who made fun of avid runners and gym rats, who said they need to just enjoy life and not be so uptight about working out.  I get it now…I am taking care of my body, making time for myself…I am doing it!  You know, I was just thinking this morning that I haven’t had so much as a sniffle for over a year.  I almost ALWAYS get sick in the fall/winter.  When the seasons change.  My allergies are bad.  My asthma is bad.  I get bad coughs, sinus infections…I was tired all the time.  Now?  Nothing.  No sickness, no fatigue, less anxiety and stress.  Imagine that!  EXERCISE doesn’t zap your energy- it replenishes it!  On top of all that, what better way to be thankful for the functioning body, legs, heart and lungs God has given to me than to use them? 

Here is a little recap of my December training plan.  I make nerdy little notes, nothing is organized or official- but I like to have a little history of what I’ve done.  Something to be proud of:

Jeff and I have discovered that the school tracks are awesome!  The kids can go with us and will run around in the fresh air, climb and explore the bleachers, or just sit in the sunshine with a book or a Nintendo 3DS for an hour while we exercise.  ON top of that, it’s showing a great example to them about taking care of your body with exercise!  They will run laps with us, or climb stairs with us.

Onto January.  So far this month, my feet have covered 25.1 miles.  After this update, I am going to try to update every Friday.  There are about 6 weeks left until the Cowtown Half!

The plan for the week coming up:

Here’s to a Healthy, Happy 2012!!

One of my Newest Favorite Things!

Reading in bed alongside my smart babygirl:

Christmas at Gram & Grandpa’s

The day before Christmas Eve was Friday, and Jeff got off at noon that day.  He hurried home and we scrambled around to get every thing and every body into the car and head up to Gram & Grandpa’s house.  We still had some men in our house working on the bathroom, but we had to head out…  We were ready to get there and excited about family time and making dinner! 

We arrived and Matthew was there waiting for us, happy to finally see his cousins!  The kids took off to play and we began setting out some appetizers and snacking- Jeff and I hadn’t eaten lunch and we were starving!  We got the ham put into the oven, relaxed, and chatted with Gram and Doug, who arrived shortly after we did.  A few hours later, Grandpa and Jennifer arrived, and it was dinner time.  We enjoyed a yummy ham dinner, with the excitement in the air that presents were next.  The kids could hardly wait

Matthew and Coleman are a couple of cool and funny little dudes.  Not sure how or why they lost their shirts here…

My little silly monkey:

The time to open presents arrived and the kids tore through them in record time, of course!

Coleman wasn’t convinced that his bag was emptied out…

So he climbed inside just to make sure.

The next morning was Christmas eve, and Jeff was excited to get up and cook breakfast at his parents house.  Since we’d had 2 recent gravy-failures, he recruited Gram to teach him/us how to make the perfect breakfast gravy.  YUMMY!

After breakfast digested, we took Shelby, Coleman, and Matthew to the track to run wild in the cold, fresh air, while I got my exercise in.  4 miles on Christmas eve- I know, there must be something wrong with me.

We were all pretty tired, and we headed home soon after that to make it to Christmas Eve service at church, and also make sure our back yard was ready just in case Santa brought that trampoline the kids had asked for!

Shelby and Coleman had some good rest time on the way home from Pilot Point with their new neck pillows from Gram:

Thank you for a wonderful Christmas celebration Peck family!

Shelby and Coleman's Terrible Christmas Presents

After watching the Jimmy Kimmel clip about parents giving their kids a "terrible" present on video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4a9CKgLprQ), we had to try it out ourselves on Christmas eve. Shelby and Coleman probably knew something was up with 9 adults watching and stifling giggles, but it was funny anyway!





You have to listen closely because of all the loud adults, but as soon as Coleman sees his potato, he says, "Thank you."
I was so proud of him!  I seriously thought he would throw it and/or start crying or something.
Then I say, "That's awesome!" and he says, "No it's not."

A Grown-Up Dinner Out!

We were very excited when Venesa invited us to a couple’s dinner for Ben’s birthday last month.  It was just a low key night out with old friend, no kids, at a wonderful restaurant I’d been wanting to go to (Tillman’s Roadhouse in Dallas.)  Perfect plan!

Millie and Luke came over to play house with the kids, and Anna even joined us before so she could fix my hair.  It took forever, but the curls lasted all night! (First time ever to have curls last that long!)  I was so proud I even took a self-portrait in the car.  (Nerd alert.)

Ben didn’t know about this dinner, and obviously Venesa did a great job of keeping it quiet.  When we walked in, they were sitting in the little bar area with some neighbors, just having drinks.  He was so surprised to see us, but since we were the first ones there, he thought it was a very amazing coincidence that we had come to eat there, all the way from Fort Worth, on the same night that they were there.  I was just trying not to giggle, and keep up the act.  While ordering a drink at the bar next to Ben, I looked over my shoulder and Kirk had gotten there.  I said, “Oh my gosh, Kirk’s here too!”  and his face went from surprise to acknowledgement as he said, “I’m beginning to think this isn’t a coincidence.”  Then his face turned bright red.  Hilarious!

Soon the whole clan was there, so we (tried to) take a couple of group pictures.  The guys’ picture turned out great.  These are some of Jeff’s best buds from Texas Tech:
Steve, Ben, Kyle, Jeff, and Kirk (Goose)

And this is what the pitiful attempt at a girls’ picture looked like.

(trying to corral)

(on the phone with the sitter)

(the one that would be good is blurry)
Meg, Cristine (in back), Venesa, Andrea, Joanie

Oh, well.  Fun times!
It was a wonderful night.  And I still dream about Tillman’s macaroni & cheese and the salmon I had there!

Shelby’s First Sleepover

Shelby had her very first sleepover with a friend the week before Christmas. 

Natalia is one of her besties since they were cute little 2 year olds in the HoneyBees class together at school.  

2007,  Cute and tiny!!  (I never realized- they’re kind of making the same face here.)

  

2008:

2009: I guess we all had the same witch idea, even the mommies!

I know I have more pictures of them, but Halloween is a time I know I can always find some on my disk!

Shelby and Natalia go to different schools now, but we get together often, especially now since they play on the Lions soccer team together!

Natalia’s mommy is a great friend to me, and she just seemed to know how busy I’d been on my “break” with 2 kids, trying to get ready for Christmas, and having many random home improvement guys in and out of the house all week working on our bathroom. (which is another story- and no it’s not done yet, but soon!)  Natalia is an only child, and has two teeny tiny little dogs, so we all know Miss Shelby was in heaven over there! 

They did art, played on the computer, had dinner, and I think Shelby even faked a tummy ache after dinner so she could have some private down time with a puppy and a tv. 

Ana knew it was her first sleepover so she made sure to send me pictures along the way.

Bedtime!

The next morning, they went to see a movie and to lunch before we picked Shelby up.

Shelby didn’t want to leave.  She was hiding when I got there and in fact, I had to get stern with her in order to get her to show her face and come with me!  Silly/frustrating girl!  She made sure I met, pet, and held both doggies before we left.  I have never met another person with a more one-track mind for animals/DOGS than this child.

Shelby came home trying to talk in Spanish.  Several times in the next day she said a jibberish phrase to me out of the blue and had me laughing.  Ana is a Spanish immersion teacher, and has only spoken to Natalia in Spanish since she was born, so I guess Shelby was giving it a try after being at their house for a while!

What a fun night she had!  I can’t wait until Natalia can come stay with us!

Ladies Man

Lately we have discussed Coleman playing soccer on the same team as a girl in his class ("R") this spring.  This is the girl that he sits with at lunch and "flirts" with by throwing plastic spoons and maybe a piece of food at every once in a while.  The teachers have said they might even be making Coleman's long-term crush Audrey a little jealous, because R (who joined the class just a few months ago) obviously has Coleman's eye. ;) 

Coleman hasn't played organized soccer before. So a couple days ago, Jeff was telling him that he has to do his best, and listen to the coach, and really go after that ball, etc, and Coleman adds, "Yeah and not just like stare at R___."  So we said, "Yeah....well, why would you just stare at R____?" and he replied, "Because she's like, BEAUTIFUL!"  Then he grinned and blushed and hid his face in Daddy's arm.