Closer to my goal

OK I'm still a long way away from my 5K goal, but as I've said, I just need to improve my distance a little at a time. Today I did just that! I ran 1.47 miles! It's kind of a disappointment to be sooo close to 1.5 but that just means I need to work a little harder next time.

I would really like to buy a reliable pedometer that would accurately measure my distance as I'm out running. I think that if I knew today that I was .03 miles away from my halfway point that I would have kept going. I bought a new iPod last week and have heard that there's some good apps that could help me but I'm having issues with my iTunes account so I'm waiting to get them resolved before I can look in to it a little more.

On to the fun topic... my little 2 year old! Autie is talking up a storm these days. Unfortunately I only understand about half of what she says. The sad part is that I can see her frustration when I don't understand her! We just do a lot of repeating around our house. She is so much fun to be around. She is a bright, funny, curious, precious, kind-hearted and sassy little girl and I'm so lucky to have her in my life.

We started regularly going to Sunday School at the church down the street from us and
Autie and I are both getting a lot out of it! She seems to really enjoy the class and teacher and a couple of weeks ago she came home singing a song that I didn't recognize. She was very persistent in singing this and repeated it over and over for a long time! She would dance around marching and then would yell what sounded like "Ahhh-saa!" The next Sunday I went to the teacher and asked what they sang each week and she said that we were welcome to peek in on their worship time when they do all of their singing. My mom snuck in and I'm positive that she found which song Autumn was singing! So cute!

Untitled from LaNell German on Vimeo.

Happenings

Over the last couple of weeks, I seem to have hit a plateau in my running. As I posted a couple of weeks ago, my personal best was about 1.3 miles and I was proud! But if I am going to run that 5k in November, I need to keep going a little further. It just wasn't happening though! I have still kept my 3-5 times a week plan but just couldn't get back up to that 1.3 mile mark. Today I was determined to beat it and set out for my run. I just ran until my spring was gone and I felt that each step was a burden on my body. I got home and clocked it and found that I beat my best with 1.44 miles! Go me!

This weekend a very exciting thing happened in my family! My sister Kate gave birth to her first daughter, Drew Frances. I was allowed in the delivery room and actually got to see little Drew enter the world and I must say that it was the most incredible thing I've ever witnessed. It seems that when I was giving birth to Autumn I was on a different planet because I didn't watch and I guess I wasn't in the frame of mind to really pay attention. But I am so thankful to Kate and Ron for allowing me to be a part of that wonderful moment. I am constantly amazed at how strong, amazing, and resillient women's bodies are. Not only do we create a life, but we grow one in our body for 40 weeks and then to top it off, we make food for the baby! Miraculous for sure. So help me to welcome my new neice who was born February 25th at 11:01pm. She was 7lb 1oz and was 20 inches long.

I am so in love with her already and can't wait to see her grow in to the beautiful amazing person that she is destined to be!

A New Goal

These last couple of months, I've managed to make some time for me, which is definitely hard to do as a new mom. In this "me-time", I have discovered something that has never even remotely interested me in the past... Jogging! I began this journey last July in the dead heat of summer. I started out with a walk. What began as a tool to help me finally shed the baby-weight became not only something to do, but something to look forward to and to be proud of!

When I started, I walked. Period. I walked almost every single morning. My neighborhood route was 2 miles and I felt great! I started to see the weight come off. After a few pounds, I started to think, hmmm, maybe I can jog to the end of that block. And I did! It was challenging but seemed to be fun! I liked to get home and look online to see how far I ran. And although it was only about .25 miles in the beginnning, it was a start! Over the last few months, I've seen my distance get farther and farther. A couple of weeks ago I hit a mile! I was so proud. I had never run a full mile in my entire life. All this has made me want to keep going and push myself. And I've set a goal that I need to record somewhere so I cannot back out. So here it is...

I will run a 5K this year! RUN! The race I'm reaching for is the Susan G Komen Race for the cure in November. It's totally doable!

I still have a long way to go to reach my goal, but every day is one more step to achieving this goal. Today, I ran 1.31 miles. Hopefully I'll be able to use this blog as a way to keep myself in check.

Not only has this exercise given me a little of my figure back, it's given me something to really look forward to. It's just a little something to recapture a little of "me" which is so hard to do when my whole life has centered around my precious little angel for the last 2 years!

Autumn's first hair cut!

We went to get Autie's first haircut today! We were a little aprehensive because she barely lets me comb it, but decided to give it a try anyways. We went to one of those kids haircut places and the first thing that she wanted to to is to get in one of the cars that are the salon chairs.


Once she got up in it, surprisingly it was really easy for Amy, her hairdresser, to do her job! They had a movie playing for Autumn to watch and of course there were all of the buttons in the Barbie Jeep that she was sitting in. They wet her hair and saved the first cut curl in a little baggie for us to keep. She sat patiently while the rest of the haircut took place and even let Amy blow-dry it!

She then got a treat when they painted her fingernails. It was a real day of beauty!

I almost started to cry during the whole process, but Jeremy snapped me back to reality when he started laughing at me. The other moms in the salon understood, though!

We left with a beautiful little bob, baby pink fingernails, a commermorative certificate, and a little curly lock of hair. It was a great trip, one that I will never forget!