number 12

a few months ago, i mentioned to betsy, my roommate from college, that it would be fun to run the indy mini-marathon together.  she surprisingly said yes quite quickly and we both signed up.  almost immediately after hitting "register", we both felt a pang of fear and "why did we think this was a good idea?"  regardless, we trained, suffered pains our non-runner selves weren't used to, and made it to the start line on may 5th.

our goal was to jog the whole thing and finish.  we did just that.  but the funny thing about both of us is that we are pretty competitive people.  not necessarily with each other, but just knowing that we could have do better.  betsy immediately was saying, "we could have easily shaved off twenty minutes of our time.  it was just too crowded!" and i felt the strong desire to get in a faster corral and beat my time (2:38:39) next year!  i have to admit that passing each person brought such joy on the track.  i know that i came in 18,303rd, but it felt good passing the person that came in 18,304th.  i'm pretty sure i was just beaming the entire time, looking like a fool thinking "i'm doing this!  i'm doing this!  holy crap!  i'm doing this".  instead of this being a "cross this off my life list" type of thing, i think it has turned into a lifelong competition with myself.   and i am even thinking of signing up for a marathon.  now that is just crazy!

oh, and number 12 was to run 30 miles in a week.  i ran:
sunday: 10.7
monday: 2.63
tuesday: 2.50
wednesday: 1.07
saturday: 13.1!

number 6

 a couple weeks ago, i donated my hair.  i know on the list of 30 before 30, it says to donate to locks of love, but that just wasn't happening.  i had signed up to cut my hair with my mops group, so there was a specific date that everyone would do it together.  i kept growing it out and letting it go since september, assuming that i would have beautiful long and lush hair and that locks of love would say, "wow, we've never been given this much amazing hair.  you win!" (i really like to make everything a contest). instead, it wouldn't grow and i missed the ten inch mark.  luckily, one of the other girls found pantene beautiful lengths, which only requires 8 inches, so off my hair went to someone who might be blessed by a beautiful wig.  what do you think?

by the way, i loved the curls that day, but have yet to replicate it.  however, i don't even have to dry or straighten it now, so i do love that part of this hairstyle.  it appeals to my laziness.

12 broken, brown eggs

we started with 2 dozen hard-boiled eggs.  by the end of the 15 very busy minutes, all the eggs were dunked into every color available and were an interesting shade of brownish blue and at least half were completely smashed.  apparently, 1 and 3 are not ages to expect great results.  regardless it was fun and reminded me of my childhood.  it's weird to be doing the exact same things with my own kids.  happy easter, three weeks late!

who needs a spoon?

admitting failure (a post full of parentheses)

i haven't been keeping up on posting weekly photos.  i haven't even taken a photo a day like i had intended to for the duration of this year.  i am admitting my failure at project 365 and moving on from it for now.  maybe 2013 will be a better year for that.  there are reasons for this failure that i am not offering as excuses, just merely complete roadblocks in allowing me to be the perfect woman i have dreams of someday being.  the woman who can take care of her two kids (who are absolutely insane), take care of our house (which is an absolute disaster), pay attention to her husband (sorry josh!), and spend hours a day pursuing new interests (yeah right!). 

well, one thing that is taking up way too much of my time is training for the mini-marathon.  it seemed to me like a great way to get in shape, get to bond with my roommate from college (we're running it together), and check something off my life list.  in my mind, it was only 13.1 miles.  only.  no big deal.  what was i thinking?  it's 13.1 miles.  did you hear me?  13.1 miles.   the longest i've run in any given stretch was maybe 4, and that involved me chasing after the much more talented girls on my track team, struggling to not lose sight of them, cursing repeatedly under my breath that i wasn't as fast as them.  (sidenote: one of those girls will most likely win an olympic gold medal this summer.  i forgive my teenage self for not being able to keep up with her).  regardless, naptime used to be blog time, reading time, pretend to pick up the house time, tv time.  now it is only training time with the hopes of being able to shower before one or both wake up.  i ran for an hour today, and today was a short run day.  that's absurd.   i just want this to be over.  (another sidenote: apparently, quitting nursing six weeks ago and following an excessive exercise routine can cause insane hormone issues.  this has led me to cry at anything sweet, funny, sad, nerve-racking, scary, or really any emotion.  it has also led me to have a period that has lasted about four weeks.  i hate running even more).  i long for the days when i can run three miles and be impressed with myself.  someday.  someday soon...

30 before 30: katie edition

i am working on my list of 30 things to do before 30. like josh, i'm having a hard time figuring out 30 things to do, but i thought i would at least start the list and hope that you may have some suggestions that i can add to the list. i have 2 years to do these, so i'm trying not to add things that i know we won't have the money to do. these aren't necessarily my lifelong desires, but my short-term bucket list, if you will. things that i know will keep my life interesting and make myself committed to doing a lot of living in a short period of time.

here goes.

1. project 365
2. shoot a gun
3. go to a rodeo or monster truck rally
4. be tech silent for 48 hours
5. sleep outside
6. donate to locks of love
7. go to a dairy farm
8. go to a winery
9. eat 30 new things
10. read 30 books
11. watch best picture winners since 1984
12. run 30 miles in 1 week
13. read the entire bible
14. host a party
15. be on tv
16. eat vegetarian for 1 month
17. cook an entire meal from the garden
18. take a cooking class
19. find something to volunteer for
20. blog daily for 30 days straight
21. go to the harry potter theme park
22. pay off all debt except mortgage
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.

week 11

day 71
day 72
day 73
day 74
day 75
day 76
day 77