It's 2019, Yo

It's a new year.  Let's catch up!

We spent a wonderful holiday season together.  The kids were home, Jason had some time off of work, we had a revolving door of family members here to visit.  It was a lovely end to a CUH-RAZY month.  Guys, I mommed so hard, trying to prepare the perfect Christmas for all of my loved ones.  I am not complaining- I love Christmas, and all of the magic that comes along with it.  But it's a lot of work.  Shopping, wrapping, baking, gifting, planning activities, class parties, watching ALL OF THE CHRISTMAS MOVIES.  (J is a real hard ass when it comes to the Christmas movies.  There can be NO Christmas programming on the TV before we have finished the Thanksgiving turkey, and really, I want to watch Elf once a week.  So in December, I do.  Also, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.)  It was a great time full of food, drink, family, and love.

Meanwhile, I've kept up running as much as my knee will allow (which honestly, isn't that much- BOO.)  But before my knee started to crap out, I did a couple of things.  I ran my first beer mile.  Chug a beer, run a quarter of a mile, repeat x 4.  It was super amazing fun.  I was a little nervous coming into it, because it had been somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 years since I've chugged a beer.  But as it turns out, it's just like riding a bike!  Y'all, this girl can CHUG.  I was the third place female finisher.  I could have maybe come in second, but I was too nervous to look down at my watch to check my pace.  Next year, I'm moving up the ranks.

I also won my first age group award!  I was initially feeling a little sad and left out that I wasn't able to run my beloved Holly Springs Half Marathon.  But when race day came and I was gearing up to run the 5k, I realized there was a benefit to being one of those running the short race- all of the fast, distance runners were running the half, leaving not that many people behind for the shorter race.  I considered for the first time that maybe I could place in the top three ladies in my age group.  And I did it!  I came in FIRST.  It felt great, and for the first time I considered some new running goals that don't involve long distances.

Technically, J beat me by 2 seconds.  But official race results list me before him, so basically I win.

There have been activities galore.  We went to the state fair and a pumpkin farm, I saw Hamilton (AMAZING!), it snowed for a hot minute and the kiddos got soaked, we had a girls day at The Nutcracker, we moved a bunch of stuff from one home to another...

That's right!  We have a new roommate.  My sister moved in a few weeks ago.  She'll be staying with us while she finishes grad school.  My kids are pretty much obsessed with her, which is fine, because she's obsessed with them right back.  We're excited to have a built-in babysitter.  Also, watch out world, because our Wonder Twin powers are activating.  We have serious twin telepathy going on since becoming roomies.  Yes, I know we are ten years apart, but twinsies nonetheless.

That's a tiny nutshell of all of our goings-on, but maybe now that life is getting back to normal (kids in school, yay!), I'll have spare time in an amount longer than 1.4 seconds.

Happy new year and love to all in 2019!