GIRLS ON THE RUN IS SO MUCH FUN 2023

Today I am going to focus on the positive. I am still battling some mental demons, but they have let up a tiny bit and for that I thankful.

Pardon his messy room, but my deal is if you want to live like a pig fine, keep your door shut.  I adore his cat and his love for his boy.  I walked in to see Andrew playing his VR headset and there is Elvis staring at him lovingly.  

We have hit the "I don't need a coat" stage of his life.  Sigh.  Middle school boys.  A day or two after this it was "I am wearing shorts" and it's 20 degrees outside.  

We have also hit the "I don't need a haircut" stage.  One of his friends at school has the exact red curly hair as his so I convinced him to let that friend's mom cut his hair.  Don't worry, she is a hairdresser and she knew exactly how to make him happy.  As always he looks SO grown up when he gets it cut.

Even though my job is seriously stressing me out to the max right now, I still love it and my co workers.  We did a new to me project, which tends to make my anxiety get pretty gnarly because I am super afraid of failure and my co worker stepped up, took the lead, and while we had hiccups, made it the best she could. I am proud of her.  

Running at night and seeing all of the Christmas lights brings me so much joy.  I love the cold, the twinkling of the lights, and the space to think.  

#teamwinter all the way!

We don't get to see family much over the holidays.  After we had Andrew and Santa became a thing, we stopped traveling back to Tennessee for any holiday.  Plus, having dogs, crazy red dogs at that, makes things even more complicated.  We have tried to build some new traditions that we can do as a family here in Kansas.  One of those is to go to a little town East of here named Saint Marys and go to their little dry goods store called Sugar Creek.  

They do Christmas right by having amazing ice cream sundae creations and the gingerbread house contest.   People do amazing work with these houses! We get to vote on the top three, but there were so many great ones that it was hard to chose this year.  

And this year they had a food truck park that had woodfire pizza, yummy chicken chili, and beer!

Sunday was about the Girls on the Run 5K.  I didn't get to coach this year thanks to my new job and it seriously broke my heart. I had hoped we could find some way to compromise and let me off in time to go over to the school, but with the types of experiments we do, it just wasn't possible.  Some of our football family had their twins doing the program this year, so when they needed a running buddy, I was ALL IN!  Except, whoops, they are super fast and I am not anymore.  It worked out great, we started together, and they kept stopping for me to catch up, but I finally convinced them to JUST GO!  The course was a bit long (almost 3.4 miles) and they finished around 32 something with me and another one of my favorite girls finishing in around 35 something.  I also got to see all of my girls from last year in the Heart and Sole program at the middle school and get lots of hugs.  It seriously was the best day ever....until the Chiefs lost but that is another story.  

Have a great week y'all!