Category: erin is …


May
2014

It’s been a while, right?

categories: erin is ..., rambling, running

So …

How’s it going, folks?

I’ve been thinking of reasons to re-invigorate this blog, what I would say, etc. I think I need it for the accountability in running and workouts, as well as just allowing for a creative outlet.

It’s just been so stinking busy lately!

I’ve been organizing my first virtual race – the Have a Gray Run race weekend this week! It’s not that complicated of an event, but it’s still time-consuming. I love it, and I love that we may be able to help our friends in some small way.

Then there’s the usual mom thing, the usual work thing, and the usual wife thing. Except none of those stay very usual for long, right? We’ve had an ER trip and overnight at the hospital for our daughter (nothing long-lasting, just a temporary illness gone bad), big changes at my job, and trying to keep my husband my number one priority in the middle of it all (and with his own growing business). So there’s that.

I’ve slacked off on running training because a) I don’t have a race and b) we’re already getting well into the “Houston running weather sucks” time of year. Ever since the time change to Daylight Savings Time, I’ve been exhausted and irritable. I can’t get back into a good routine, and I haven’t found the motivation to make it happen.

So all that in mind is why I’m trying to find little ways – like blogging – to get me back into routines.The jury is still out on what that will look like — Mommy Monday? Training Tuesday? Some other set of weekday themes to prompt me to write, build some posts that I can write when I feel creative and schedule to be out in the world more regularly?

As far as training, here you go: I want to do another half marathon or two. I want to run more for it and actually, really train. I decided to pull the Disneyland Half Marathon training plan into my calendars (work, phone, etc.) so I can use it as a guide. I’m not running that particular race, but it will help me prep without feeling too pressured.

The other training I want to do is a bit more specific, but it starts in October. I want to find a way to do the Disney Princess Half Marathon next year, but I want to do the Glass Slipper Challenge. Some friends from work are seriously talking about doing it, and I think we would have an absolute blast together.

That’s the plan. Check in with me to see how it goes in reality. 😉

  • Comments Off on It’s been a while, right?

Mar
2014

Move it, Move it!

categories: erin is ..., family, jude, nora, seth, siblings

Google Photos has a new (to me) feature that will auto-enhance some of the pictures you upload if the software detects certain characteristics. One of the enhancements is animated GIFs … these are some of the ones that completely cracked me up!

At the pumpkin patch with Joodles.
DSC_0236-MOTION (1)

Hello?
DSC_0420-MOTION (1) Christmas Eve pictures always go well, don’t they?

DSC_0433-MOTION (1)

As do family pictures!

DSC_8646-MOTION (1) Uncle Caleb with all the cousins – I think we can use this for a “Marry my brother-in-law” picture!DSC_8655-MOTION (1)Doctor Fairy Princess Mommy Nora
IMG_3673-MOTION

 

The girl’s personality clearly lends itself to animated GIFs!
Western Nora Style 4-MOTION


Feb
2014

Antsy Feet

categories: erin is ..., running

I am getting antsy about not running.

“What, Erin?” you ask, shocked and appalled to hear that my legs are no longer crawling out of bed before dawn. “You’re not running?!”

Oh no. I’m on a break.

“But why?!”

Well, after I did that half marathon …

“You ran a half?! Way to go!”

Oh, I totally did not RUN it. I ran/walked the first half (woo hoo! 1:18 – Fastest 10k according to my Nike watch!), stopped running around 7.5-8 miles, began limping around 10-11 miles, and finally made it to the finish line at around 3:21. (Wow, I didn’t realize until I typed that how much I slowed down in the second half!)

More on that later, though.

As you might expect, my feet are SORE. My right foot has more-than-expected residual pain, though. I’m instructed to baby it with supportive shoes all the time and probably best not to run.

At first I didn’t really notice, what with the mastitis (yes) and the stomach bug from Hades (lost four pounds in one night – good grief). But now that I’m slowly returning to normal, I actually miss running. The idea of not running for another week makes me a little sad.

Sad enough to contemplate the bikes at the gym, and that’s REALLY sad. I hate those things, with their butt-numbing seats. They make treadmills feel like excellence.

We shall see …

  • Comments Off on Antsy Feet

Feb
2014

So for this year …

categories: erin is ..., family, help someone, rambling, thinking

Long time, no post! Life has been hectic since … well, Christmas? Witness the Christmas cards still sitting on my desk, waiting to be mailed.Oh yes, really. I’ll get to that later though …

I spent a lot of time thinking after I wrote my post about being youer than you. I’ve felt for a few years – mainly at work, somewhat at home – that I’m not really being me. It’s not an uncommon thing, I think, for newer wives and mothers to feel that way. I mean, it feels like every few years you go through an adjustment and maturity process that makes you do that questioning of self anyway. That’s why we have so many great coming-of-age and finding-yourself novels, movies, etc. I went from established single woman to fiancee, wife, and mother in two years. Then we added two more kids, I changed jobs in the middle of that, and I work in an area where some forms of blazing personal expression that makes you stand out (purple hair, nose ring, visible tattoos) isn’t totally cool on the job. (My perception, anyway.) So somewhere along the way I felt like a lot of “me” got shackled, forgotten, grown out of, or otherwise left along the roadside because there wasn’t time, energy, or benefit to my career.

It just ended up making me sad. Sad and frustrated. And kind of angry. I’m done with that. I’m done with forgetting who I am at heart in favor of meeting someone else’s expectations that I haven’t totally bought into.

That doesn’t mean that I’m rejecting these wonderful roles and jobs that I have now — on the contrary! I want to go back to being the Me who got into them in the first place.

Be Me

Be Me

I want to have fun.

I want to be creative. I want to knit and scrapbook and write and make things with my kids. (And try to not freak at the mess.)

I want to laugh at things that I like, even if they’re silly and frivolous. I like Disney princesses, and I like young adult fiction, and I like cartoon movies.

I want to wear my Tinkerbell or Christmas socks any time of year, any day of the week, and not worry about someone thinking they’re not “executive” enough.

I want to keep my focus and priority on my family and friends, not on my job. If that means I never go beyond where I am now, so be it.

I want to help more. There are so many people I know who are going through tough things, and I want to help however I can. I’ll start running with Charity Miles, look for ways to support friends, and keep buying one extra bag of groceries for the food pantry whenever I can.  I’m trying to figure out how to host a virtual 5K/10K for a friend’s infant son who needs a kidney transplant.

I want to be more of the me that God intended me to be, and less of the me that I was letting my circumstances make me. I think I’ll need to start small because my brain can’t handle much more than that. 🙂

Colossians 3:17

%d bloggers like this: