Finally Back!

Hi! I have been missing in action! Really, I had a runaway computer that hitch-hiked to college with my daughter. I am now sharing a computer with my son and husband.

Maybe it won't be as hard to divide our time when football season is over. :)

While I can not begin to catch up on everything, I would love to start out with...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Walking regularly after Kacey left for college was difficult.

I kept thinking "when it cools off it'll be easier!"

Oh, sure it's easier to sit on that sofa and put it off until tomorrow, especially

when there isn't anyone to say "do it now!!!"

But Thanksgiving came up and I knew she would be coming home. So we planned to walk

in the 3rd Annual Savannah Turkey Trot. I was a bit nervous, but really more excited!

Thursday morning 6:30a.m.(and 39 degrees) I don't ever get up when it's dark! But it would take us about an hour to drive there. We arrived at Daffin Park about 8a.m 

The race was to start at 8:30. The sun was shining, although a bit windy, it was starting to warm up. It was supposed to get up around 50 degrees, perfect weather. I have to admit I was surprise to see some people in shorts and tank tops.

But I loved seeing all the dogs that were there to chase the Turkey! 

 

It was a wonderful way to spend a special day with a very special person.

Independence Moon

Happy Independence Day!

It’s a hundred degrees again today. I was doing fairly good walking last week, nearly six miles total over three days. It’s been a bit harder getting motivated this weekend, with the holiday the heat and the humidity. 

July seems to be a busy time; everyone is planning something, and going in different directions. Kacey, now finished with her summer college course, has a wedding to attend and then working with Vacation Bible School in a couple of weeks.  Johnny and Tucker are still working on the trip to New York, where Tucker has a chance to play in the PDGA Amateur Disc Golf World Championships. I was considering a marathon in Saint Augustine (I absolutely love St. Augustine), but going in July seems beyond my tolerance.  I really need to work on heat tolerance...but I just don’t see how you do that.

I went out this evening and walked three miles.  Walking in the late evening is nice, still hot but not too bad. The moon was really pretty tonight. It was just a little sliver and had clouds hanging around it. Every now and then the clouds would hide the moon away and I would have to wait to see it again. I think that’s what kept me going for the third mile, I just wish I had my phone with me I would have taken a picture to share.

I have been thinking more about the Disney Marathon in October. A teammate had mentioned it was run at night; maybe just what I need to get my feet wet, so to speak. An added perk: I would get to see a good many of the “Team.” I guess we will have to wait to see.

Hope everyone had a safe weekend!

The Hills of North Carolina

All last week the temperatures had been in the 100’s. By the time Friday morning came around we (my hubby, daughter and I) couldn’t wait to get to North Carolina. Not only was it so much cooler there, but my son had been gone for a week and I couldn’t wait to see him! My mom kept saying how it was supposed to be cooler than it turned out to be, they were expecting the upper 80’s and I think it was 92 Sat and 93 Sun. Now you need to understand a couple of things. Where I live in the country we don’t get much of a breeze unless it is a “windy” day. Where we go to visit family in NC they live near the lake and at least while I was there, we had an awesome breeze.

Saturday morning I got up at a decent time (great for me). I think we got out of the house around 8:30. We had not planned exactly were to go, I knew the neighborhood would be a great place to walk though. Little did I know someone slipped hills into the area! YEAH, really, I couldn’t believe it either! The first road took us right to the lake, it was still kind of quite for a Saturday, then we turned a corner and... 

“Hey, whats that?”

My daughter thought I had lost my mind, my nephew ( ) who has more energy than all of us put together, laughed at me the entire walk! 

“A hill, who put that here? I don’t remember hill’s being in this neighborhood!”

Funny, until you try to walk somewhere you just don’t realize the difference in the elevation. I think this is something I have to learn from. 

Since this weekend, I have noticed more course maps noting the elevation changes. Now I am not saying they weren’t there before, just I hadn’t noticed. Maybe I had that road block - Florida is flat, so is south Georgia... Gee, I just haven’t thought about looking for hills unless you get near more Mountainous areas. I know there’s hills in Atlanta, so I can’t be all dumb, just neglectful of following through with the research.

Yeah, dumb. I know.

But I’m still learning... and still walking!

Road Block

Training started out well enough. Within a few weeks I was walking two miles. In May my family had a killer road trip which took us from our house in Georgia to my parents in North Carolina then to Orlando, FL (yeah!). Then we went back home for a couple of days before going back to NC and finally back home!!  A total of approximately 1,600 miles.  The trip was made within a two week period, but at the point that I finally stopped, it was to late. I had already aggravated my sciatic nerve.  This was a real low point for me. My training had to completely stop. My confidence was teetering on the side of a very tall cliff.

This is where Team AllEars has impressed me once again. I had so many messages and emails with uplifting comments and stories. I really needed to stop feeling sorry for myself, my team members were very supportive and helped me build back the confidence I needed to restart my training.

So, to catch up a bit, I took enough time off to recuperate and got back on the road.  It didn’t take long to get up to walking two miles, I tried not to be disappointed that before I had reached three. Now I have more than an injury to  be careful about, the heat has become a factor.  With temperatures reaching the 100’s and the heat index well above 110, I have to start early in the morning.

YIKES!  That is so hard for me, just getting up early is bad enough, but to actually do something productive before 11:00a.m. This is something I am working very hard on.  Wish me luck!

Making a Difference

I remember being thirteen-ish and getting up really early one Saturday morning. I headed out with my shorts and headband (of course I looked cool) and started jogging. My plan was to become a “jogger” I thought it was neat and easy, what more do you need other than your feet, right? Well, if memory serves, I think I might have eaten a banana, being thirteen I was ignorant (not totally stupid). I made it down my street then came back. I never ever jogged again. Why? It was a hot day in Savannah, I didn’t drink any water so had a splitting headache before I made it home.

Now in the past few years I’ve walked in my neighborhood for exercise. Most of the time when my friend calls and tells me to get off my butt but more recently, with my daughter in college and my friend gone to work, hhmm “the butt said putt.”  My husband and son play disc golf (for those of you who don’t know what that is, it is like golf but with baskets and discs instead of holes and balls) and, as I said, my daughter has been off at college in Jacksonville, FL. This leaves me with more time on my hands than I have had in years. All the years since becoming a mom, it is very enlightening to find yourself in that place. I started evaluating my “hobbies” and interests. Whoa! Disney and traveling, well of course family and pets, but Disney is my main weakness, and I am always online researching our next trip or planning something for someone else. My favorite place online to go is AllEars.net; I read articles and blogs and listen to podcasts. It was there that I learned about Team AllEars.

One night in April I was listening to a live podcast about the team, and walking in the Disney Marathon; (Ya know the funny thing is, I wasn’t even walking for exercise then. I mean I had before, but not recently. I was just interested in anything Disney) they were a team, no, they were friends actually, and to hear them talk about what they were doing to help was inspiring. It’s amazing how complete strangers can be brought together. I had to be a part of this. I have a really good friend who went through some issues with cancer this year. It wasn’t breast cancer, but to me that was a minor detail. I just want to beat it. I don’t want that word to put fear in anyone anymore.  

I never thought about doing anything that would make a difference. I realize I am one person, but I am one person of a group that will make a difference. I am helping, and it feels good!

Every step I take is a step closer; step closer to my goal; a step closer to the marathon and maybe a step closer to a cure.