She Likes Purple

January Highlights

1. Mike and I went to New Orleans to celebrate my 32nd birthday, and it's going to be a tough birthday to top. It was a wonderful little weekend away. We ate unbelievably good food (August and Johnny's Po Boys, FTW!) We also enjoyed both a swamp tour and a cocktail tour. (I love this cocktail tour so much, I've now been on it three times.) More than all those things, though, we enjoyed naps and sleeping in.

2. Hosted a baby shower for Kristie! 

3. Spent some time with Mike's sister and her family. Kyle was spoiled with so much cousin time, he sulked around for days after they left. 

4. After a very fitness-light 2013, I started to regularly work-out again this month. I got back to yoga, tried a few at-home vidoes, and tested out my very first FlyWheel class. (I was offered a free month of classes to the two local FlyWheel studios, and I hope to write up a full review (+ a giveaway!) soon.) Let's just say during my first Barre class at the studio, I actually thought I might have broken a muscle. I don't think that's physically possible, but it was unfamiliar pain. I felt like an absolute rockstar after the class, but all broken muscly during.  

5. In addition to working out, I started the 21-Day Sugar Detox this month. I am only five days in as of today, but I'm a fan so far. I feel great, I've already lost a little weight, and it's kick-started a healthier year for me. (I just bought the cookbook, by the way, since it's got most of the information I thought I'd need.) 

Unpictured highlights: a happy hour with a friend who gets me, a movie and dinner date with my mom to belatedly celebrate my birthday, and our mini-Cowboy's Stadium field-goal kicker!

November Recap

Wait, it's December? What? Are you SURE? Wow, time, you're certainly not messing around this year.

November was great. I ran 6.2 straight miles for the first time in 28 years. I was met at the finish line by my mom and a glass of beer. If all races end like that, I can support long-distance running.

But even checking off that awesome accomplishment, I'm still struggling to reach my goal weight. When I do, I'm throwing the world's best party. The theme is going to be: Check Out My Ass. Or, Champagne's On Me! I think I know which theme Mike would prefer.

Thanksgiving was awesome.

Kyle is a talking, walking, crazy little boy.

Other things I totally forgot to tell you about:

*Kyle had a playdate with a little boy from school. I put a note in his cubby at school to try to desperately befriend his mom. She emailed! We met up! She's one of those cool, laid-back moms I hope to be one day. We also met at a really cool park I'd never taken Kyle to before, which rates right up there with lamest things I've ever deemed blog-worthy.

*I hung out (TWICE!) with an old friend from middle school! She lives nearby and has a little boy, and we had a playdate once and a nice dinner out sans kids once. She's hilarious, too, which is always preferable to friends who don't ever make me laugh.

*We drove up to Tulsa for a weekend to celebrate Turkey Day early with my grandma. There were four adults and a toddler and there was enough food to feed a football team. She's such a great cook, and it was warm and fuzzy having her cook for me and for my kid, too.

*Our heater broke. That sucked.

December is here and right after that 2011 is waiting for us. It's such a weird time of year. The time of year I'm all reflect, reflect, reflect, plan, plan, plan. It's like emotional whiplash! But, this year, it's nice, too. Because there's a lot of good to reflect on and a lot of good to plan for. And a lot of good smack-dab right now to just enjoy.

December is going to be insane, from now until it closes.

If you've been hanging around long enough, you'll know insane is a setting I'm rather comfortable with.

Happy last month of 2010.

October Recap (With a Hefty Side of My Deep Thoughts)

(January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September)

October may have been the fastest month yet. One day we're celebrating Mike's birthday, the next we're failing at Halloween. I just don't know how a conference call can go on forever and a month can fly by like that!

There was so much good this month: a (mostly successful) high school reunion, an incredible vacation with Mike, and then there was Kyle getting sick again, which suuuuuuucked.

A mostly good month with some bad and can I really complain too much about that? I don't think I should even if I could.

November should be great, too. I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and visiting my grandma for a weekend and RUNNING A 10K OMG and cooking more than I did in October and lots of time with friends, too.

But looming on the horizon is 2011 -- can you see it, just a little bit? -- and with a new year comes lots of reflection on my to-do list this year and what I want to do/accomplish/become next year.

There are some things I just plain don't want to do anymore that are on my list this year and those things include: watching The Wire (I'm sorry, I tried), complete a boot camp class, and finish my blogroll. It's okay to change my mind, I'm learning. I usually feel really guilty about this because I want to be a person of my word and I feel whenever I change my mind this makes me unreliable and untrustworthy, which gives me anxiety.

But, if you're being honest in the moment, it's okay if that truth changes, right?

I think so.

I'm taking those things off my list.

But there's something else I'm adding to this year's list and adding to 2011's list, too: RELAX.

The day before we left for Boston we had a million things to do. We had to get Kyle's medical release forms notarized, extra bottles of Tylenol and Aquaphor and Triple Paste purchased, his clothes washed and packed, our clothes washed and packed, the fridge cleaned out, and the recycling taken out and ... hold on, I'm getting tired just reliving it.

We also had to figure out the getting-to-the-airport and getting-Kyle-to-school logistics for the day we were leaving, and when I called Mike to ask him a simple question and he blew me off, I LOST MY MIND.

It's so easy to get wrapped up in our own self-absorbed craziness, isn't it? I mean, getting ready to go on a vacation is not the most stressful situation there ever was. It's not something to freak out about. It's something to celebrate and to enjoy.

In a way, I was glad it happened -- that huge blow-up -- because it brought me back to earth and gave me perspective for the rest of the trip and we enjoyed the hell out of the rest of the trip. It felt like a second honeymoon, truly, and we laughed and ate and drank and slept and I'll be grateful for that week forever.

But, now that I'm back and reflecting and looking forward, it's quite clear that I sometimes don't handle stressful situations with any amount of grace and, you know, I really, really want to.

I had the urge, right after we came back from vacation, to just say "screw the rest of the year, I'll continue trying to become a better person in January." And then I slapped myself.

Not really! Calm down!

But this is the home stretch! If this were a race, this is where I'd get my second wind. This is the time to push harder, aim higher, do more. Two more months of the year!

I'm going to pack them full of good stuff.

September Recap: I Promise To Only Bitch About the Weather a Little Bit

(Hey, I meant to finish writing/post this over the weekend. Oops!)

September. I barely knew you, feels like. You came, you went, and it seems you're taking the last of the brutal summer with you when you go.

Excuse me, but it needs to be said: hallefuckinglujah.

So, this month Kyle got to visit Aggieland for the first time, and that game was one of my favorite family memories to date. Way better than taking him out to eat for Mike's birthday this past weekend. Hoo boy.

September also had wine festivals, birthday parties, and more running. (One 5K with another in very early October.)

This is my absolute favorite time of year, you should know, so it's strange that I've been feeling a little off the last few weeks. Feeling down, in a funk, blue. Lisa, a writing guru, wrote this post I've been meaning to link to for ages, because it's some seriously powerful stuff. I couldn''t relate, when I first read it, but I have been relating recently.

Especially this: "The fall dreads sneak out in many ways: the too-often verge of tears; the constant simmering discontent that flares into anger too easily; the lack of patience; the longing for days past; the reaching for sugar, sugar, sugar."

I'm snappy, skittish, impatient, restless, and on alert more often these days than usual. I don't like it.

I'm just feeling like the year is flying by too fast, Kyle's at a difficult stage, my weight loss has stalled, and my house is always dirty. I want the summer sun without the heat, the cool crisp air without the pitch-black evenings, the fall foods without the reminder that another year is coming to an end much too soon.

Then there's that one topic I can't let go of but can't talk about either. A friendship uneventfully fizzling yet unexpectedly hurting like hell.

You should know this about me: I have a very, very, very hard time letting go.

Anyway, all that's to say that, yes, I'm in a bit of a funk.

This isn't how I usually like to end my montly recaps. Especially not when there's so much good behind us and so much good ahead of us. I have a high school reunion, a birthday party, a TRIP ALONE WITH MY HUSBAND ahead of me. Good stuff, people.

(There's always so much good, really.)

But, guys, I don't know how to keep this stuff from you. It's inside me and it has to get out in order for me to get over it. This is all I know. Some people clean their houses (ha!), some run marathons, some bake pans of brownies. Therapy comes in million-trillion forms.

Me? I write.

I'm in a funk, and I hope October shakes me out of it.