It's a new year.

 

The ankle has been bugging me on my runs making me take December easy and not logging many miles. Total of 79 miles for the month. Here is what my 2011 looked like for miles.

1. 73
   Jan '11
2. 63
   Feb '11
3. 137
   Mar '11
4. 131
   Apr '11
5. 111
   May '11
6.  110
   Jun '11
7. 168
   Jul '11
8. 108
   Aug '11
9.  108
   Sep '11
10. 84
    Oct '11
11.  92
    Nov '11
12. 79
    Dec '11
13. 11
    Jan '12
    
    
    
    

Now onto the fashion and family life part. 

My mother and I purchased tickets to the Nutcracker put on by the Oregon Ballet Company. I love this perticular ballet and enjoy taking my girls to watch. The choreography was wonderful, costumes were stunning, but one part of the 'dance of the snowflakes' was a let down as each ballerina had on different colored panties, it was tacky. It would have been cute if they all had red and green maybe but to have zebra print was tacky. Other than that it was lovely. I will be taking my mother to another production later in the year. We love it. Here is the dress that Lexi helped me shop for. $15 and I had the earrings and necklace that I purchased earlier in the year for $4.59 and $2.59 respectively. Cute I think, I did not wear those socks with it. :) Ingnore the very messy girls room as I pick my battles with them. They do clean it two times a day and mess it up within three seconds. 

 
Saturday I went on a short 3 mile run with my friend Christina and Marty. After the short and slow run (8:20 pace) we stopped at Starbucks and BS'd for a good half hour talking about everything from Archer (funny freaking weird show) to what new job Christina is searching for. We had fun.

 After the run, I came home to grab the kids and we headed to Powell's Bookstore (my favorite book store that is an ENTIRE city block and 3 stories high). My sister went with us and the kids picked out their Christmas book from Auntie Peggy Ann (thank you). We quickly looked through the running section and found my friends book. Run with me, in which I will be doing a book review this month on Run Oregon about it.

We stayed out of the house for awhile so Aric could record vocals. So off to Goodwill and I found this shirt/dress for $3.49. 

 Yesterday, Sunday January 1st, I ran in the morning with my friend Christina and her husband Brian for a quick 4.54 miles, from their house to the track 1.27 miles (10:41 minutes) then two miles on the track (7:18 and 7:48, wow I've slowed down with this extra weight) then ran back to their house 1.27 miles (10:14) Total pace was average of 7:56 and felt too hard for those miles on the track but it was a great start to my training for this year. After that run I came home and walked with the kids to the park and we played for about an hour (including the walk there and back)

They didn't want to go, so they were blocking me from leaving, silly kids.

Then home and more fun and lunch. This is a typical lunch for me. I am eating more veggies and trying to eat less meat. Mostly for weight loss and control. Because the less I have to lug around on a run the faster my pace is. I think that is the healthy reason to lose weight. I was doing great down from 155lbs to 138lbs. However, with all the Christmas pudding and prime rib I was back up to 146lbs. Back on the watch what I eat (other than watching it go in my mouth).

For the new year I will be lugging Zander in the stroller more for runs on Wednesday and Thursday's for a few miles, where I hope he will fall asleep snug and warm. If he is not asleep it makes for fun conversations and a few stops to look at any life we see out on the run. I have to remind myself that it's more important to stop and smell the roses with him and not always be on the go. Not easy for my personality.

Here is part of our trail we will be on during the week. I have Vancouver BC Marathon to get ready for. I picked an aggressive program and hope to break 3:30. That's only an 8:00 minute pace. Should be doable. Laugh and run on, my friends.