my pink life, mi vida rosada

Today was my April race, towards my 2012 goal of a race a month. So far, it is definitely helping me to stay motivated and keep running....even when I don't feel like it. I always have the next race that I need to train for. Sweet hubby took this picture of me while he was half asleep this morning -- it is definitely hard to get up so early sometimes on Saturday mornings, just to go for a run! Today was the Girls on the Run race. So I didn't have a fast time, because I was more concerned with making sure that my running buddy, a fifth grade student, was having a good time. My running buddy needed to walk several times and ran/walked at least a mile with a serious stitch in her side....but when she saw that finish line, she SPRINTED it in. I mean, I didn't know I could go that fast -- but I told her it was my job to keep up with her. This spring has been my first experience coaching Girls on the Run . It is really a very interesting program, and I've tho...

I'm very, very close to meeting my class project donation goal.... but I still need a little bit of help. PLEASE consider donating a little bit to my class project at donor's choose .... It is very easy! It is rewarding! It helps students take their learning to a higher level. If you think it sounds like a neat idea, but don't have the funds to donate yourself, please consider spreading the word....whether it ends up being my project that is funded, or someone else's, any teacher who is desperate enough for monetary help for the classroom will be overjoyed to have your help serving his or her students. I also heard that if you use the code "MORNINGJOE", your donation will be doubled!

It's hard to believe that another year has gone by. It seems like it was so recent that we celebrated the big 3-0.... But 31 has come, and I'm sure it will fly right by, too. No big party this year....a nice, quiet dinner out for me and sweet hubby, followed soon by a family dinner. Two of my favorite ways to celebrate. I spent the rest of spring break at the beach with my god-family. They adopted me as their godchild as part of my wedding ceremony with sweet hubby, to guide us and mentor us in our marriage. I think it is a pretty darn cool tradition. It was fantastic. Lazy days, strawberry picking, a long-ish run (for me), a few meals out, a boat ride, and on and on and on. It was a nice break from school. Oh, did it make it hard to return....But we're back in school for another couple months before our next (big!) break. It is hard not to feel stressed about how much is left to be taught before state testing....before the end of the year....but I'm trying to ...

It was amazing. I cried the whole time (that was predictable). But I was also able to voice my feelings in an honest and non-judged way that made me feel like it is actually ok to feel the way I feel about not being able to have babies (yet?). It was awkward to go back to the place I used to work, to sit in the waiting room and fill out paperwork, to run into another therapist in the hallway and explain that no, I wasn't just visiting.... But overall, it was a really good experience. I heard the things I needed to hear, said the things I needed to say, and have set some challenges to myself for coping with more and more of my friends and acquaintances becoming pregnant. And I feel good about it, like finally acknowledging this challenge in my life to the people who are actually living alongside me will make it both more real and also less of a burden. More real in a way that I may or may not really want it to seem more real, since more real means I will actually have to start a...

Yay! Pink things! While they are everywhere in my life....they are seldom new and exciting, and therefore often fail to make an appearance here. My Easter dress, though, was nice a pink! (Thanks, mama!) It has been a while since we have gotten all of the family together in a picture...Actually, not sooooo long, since the wedding in September, but we didn't take my grandma with us to the wedding. It was after surgery on her eye, and she just hadn't recovered sufficiently. I have a folder full of family pictures from the past few years, that I copied from my mama -- it goes like this: holiday, holiday, birthday birthday birthday holiday birthday beach holiday holiday birthday birthday birthday holiday birthday beach holiday holiday.....and so on -- because we apparently only ever take pictures of our family during holidays and birthdays. The folder makes me giggle -- and I love to flash through the pictures in order and watch our hairstyles change -- since the locations are a...

so....tomorrow I have an appointment to see one of the therapists that I used to work for. This is a first for me. I believe in the healing powers of psychotherapy. I do. I just....never have believed in the healing powers of psychotherapy for myself. This means that in the many years I scheduled appointments, ran insurance, did billing, and in general convinced other people that it was perfectly normal to see a therapist for anything as simple as "coping skills" to things as difficult as major depression and anxiety, I never actually saw a therapist myself. I mean, I saw the therapists every day.... but I never scheduled an appointment as a direct reaction or coping strategy for something going on in my own life. Until now. The appointment is tomorrow, and I'm feeling apprehensive. I'm hopeful that acknowledging my anxious feeling will help me be less prone to nervous tears tomorrow. (I cry when I'm really nervous. It's not exactly a helpful coping st...

This teeny, tiny, little, itty bitty photo makes it look like I was feeling much more accomplished and much more victorious than I really felt as I crossed the finish line. The 10k that I managed to finish in about 60 minutes last year took me 65 this year. Last year I managed to finish the whole thing running, but this year I had to walk three times. The picture above looks celebratory....but I was actually very disappointed. The race conditions were harder for me than I imagined they would be. My running buddy backed out of the race at the last minute, leaving me to run by myself, in a sea of 40,000 people. The race was delayed for (at the time) unknown reasons for an extra hour of standing in a corral with strangers, after a brisk walking warm-up and light stretching, which I'm sure wasn't any good for my body or my morale. I started off too fast, and when I got to the uphill climb of the bridge, I wimped out. I got a cramp in my ribs, which is unusual for me, and had...