Running On Empty

Here's an update on my resolution to run a 5k this year. Well I'm still doing it! I'm taking it slow and am up to running at least a mile 3 days a week or so. So I'm about a third of the way there. I think this is pretty good. The problem is that I'm always exhausted when I finish. I mean I would think that it would become a little easier. Maybe it's the time of day I run, but I do change it up. Maybe it's my schedule, but I'm pretty routine except when it rains and is super cold because I just can't stand it! What's up with that? I'm frustrated but I am more determined than ever to do this.

Last month as part of our health insurance program, Michael and I had our free health screening by county nurses. They check your weight, blood pressure and do some basic blood work to find out about things like cholesterol and triglycerides and such. I have never had that done before. Turns out that my weight is okay(though it would probably be healthier if I lost 15-20 pounds), blood pressure is excellent, good cholesterol is good, but my triglycerides and bad cholesterol is really bad. This really freaked me out.

I know I eat too much. My husband is an AMAZING cook and he is a true Southern gentleman and we eat too many fried and fatty foods. We vowed to eat only one helping at meal times and to start exercising the three times a week she said too. I feel the improvements already but gosh darn it, I've been super cranky!!!! That first dinner time afterwords I snapped at Michael and he asked what was wrong. I threw myself on the bed and burst into tears and said I didn't know. Then all of sudden it came to me and I blurted out, "I"m annoyed because I want to eat!" Am I that spoiled that I turn into a brat when I can only eat one helping?

Darn it cholesterol! At least it keeps me motivated...5k I'm coming to get ya!

You Belong Among The Wildflowers

Spring is sprung here and I couldn't be more happy. I am not a winter person. I don't like my feet and nose always cold, I don't like the dark days and I miss the leaves on trees and sunshine. I even calculated when the midpoint of winter technically is so I know when we are in the back half. It's February 3, the day after Groundhog's Day ironically. I really think this should be the holiday. Or maybe that's why they have it that day. Anyway, I am considering having a celebration next year...I'm calling it A Midwinter's Night Dream. Not very original but you get the point. How we will celebrate I'm not sure. Any suggestions?

Speaking of groundhogs, we have one living on the slope in our front yard. Michael has never seen him but I have three times. He likes to eat grass and I guess I should thank him this year for the early spring. We tried to fetter him out yesterday while were outside grilling and hanging out with a friend, but no luck. We're tossing around names. What do you think?

Anyways, I was reminded of spring on Friday when I was talking to my good friend His Girl Friday. She was gushing about the beautiful wild yellow daffodils in her yard. I have them too I said! We both loved them and I told her to go outside, pick some and put them in a vase on her dining room table and I would do the same. I don't know if she did or not, but I did and they look simply cheerful! Yellow is definitely my favorite color and tulip my favorite flower but daffodils are definitely up there too. Yellow flowers just put you in a good mood no matter what! LOVE!

In honor of the beginning of spring here in Bama (I know it's still miserably winter in other parts of the country and I'm sorry:( ) I am including one of my favorite Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers songs "Wildflowers." It's about being happy and just being free. I do belong among the wildflowers! How about you?

Young Adult Books

Though I am certainly not a young girl anymore, I still love young adult books!!! I read a fabulous one yesterday, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. It deals with suicide, teen issues and the way we treat each other in a really interesting way. I don't want to give too much away because I really recommend this book for people to read. Go get it!

It made me think about young adult books in general. I think they are wonderful because many of them deal with really weighty issues in really profound ways while not being to heavy of a book. I read this recent one in one day. But I know it will stick with me. Last year I read another one that dealt with abortion, parental responsibility, identity and societal responsibility. It was called Unwind by Neal Shusterman. That book as well will stay with me forever. Both these books made me cry and feel things in ways I don't think many adult books do.

If I ever could write a book, I think it would be young adult. This genre is often overlooked as a \serious literary area, but it is! Teenage years is a time where you learn so much about yourself and the world, it would be fun to capture it in a novel. Something to think about.

I'm sure both books were really controversial in some schools of readers and critics. In one of my master's classes we talked about ethics and if it was okay for parents to choose what their child read. I have a tendency to think it's okay but I feel a little sad when I see parents stifle their child. I understand not wanting their child to lose their innocence, but I also think these books are great ways to reach out to children and introduce adult themes that make them think. As a parent you have to walk a fine line of what's appropriate and when to expose certain things. It's hard man. I do know that I could have handled this stuff when I was a teenager and I did read some of those controversial books and am better for it today!

Okay, I'm done with rambling. What do you think?

Cabbage Patch Kids And Coffeemakers

I just got back from my mom's for a week because my brother, his wife and his two kids were visiting. My niece is now 4 years old and my nephew is 15 months. They are adorable! Being around such young children really makes me think about what excited me as a kid and how I couldn't understand how these adults didn't like the things I liked because what I liked is the most awesome thing ever. For example, I remember saying to myself when I was like 8 that I could never see a time when I didn't want a toy for Christmas. Clothes and practical things were boring. Why did my mom get excited when she opened her new coffeemaker? It wasn't a new Cabbage Patch Kid so it wasn't awesome.


Abby and Brady were obsessed with the park. Dothan has this new park that is made for all kids but especially for handicapped children. It is wheelchair accessible and has soft rubber ground so the kids won't get hurt. I have never seen this before and think it's brilliant. You should have seen their faces light up. We went everyday. Abby also got so excited playing with Alli. She couldn't get enough of throwing the ball to her.

Perhaps my favorite part was taking Abby to see Gnomeo and Juliet. I haven't seen a kid movie in the theater in at least a decade and a half so it really took me back. It was a real cute movie, but Abby was even cuter. She was so elated to get some candy and a soda and we had to sit in the front row. My niece is extremely tiny for her age(my nephew, on the other hand, eats more than I do at 29!) so she almost couldn't sit in a chair by herself because she didn't have enough weight. But her face was priceless. I love being an aunt!!!

It was so refreshing having some pure kid time. It makes me think about my own kids someday and what will make them happy. I hope they hold onto those Cabbage Patch Kid days in lieu of coffeemakers and the practicality of adulthood for as long as they can.

On a side note: I finished the second Dragon Tattoo book. It was better than the first and I got the third book. I will take a break from it, but I will eventually read it and do a post on the whole trilogy. Happy reading!

Getting In Touch With My Roots

I am determined to have a garden. I live in the country and I feel that we have plenty of space for it. Actually, Michael started a garden a couple of years ago but let it grow in when I moved around this time last year since we spent so much time getting settled. That made it only slightly easier this weekend when the warm weather prompted us to go outside and get the plot ready for planting.

Gardening is something I have never done. I didn't grow so urban that we didn't have grass or land, but it was mostly asphalt and my parents had 4 kids to look after and 2 full time jobs so it was never something we did. Let me tell you it's hard!!! Michael and I were hoeing, raking and tilling for 6 hours in our 16 x 12 plot!!! We had to get all the roots up from where we had let it grow in. I am still sore today and it's 2 days later!!!

I realize that I love the feeling of digging in dirt and pulling up roots. It's very liberating digging with my hands and getting a stubborn root and yanking it up! I love showing those things who's boss! It was really cute because Alli and Gumbo helped too. They loved laying in the turned over land because it was especially cool.  And they would play by digging. My little black puppy's face was sprinkled with brown dirt. Precious.

Now we are deciding what to plant. We have four rows. We know one will be squash and one will be tomatoes.this summer We are thinking that 2 rows will be sweet corn first this spring and then something else this summer. In the fall we are thinking turnips and cabbage but we have more space. Any suggestions?

Around The World WishList Part 1

It's always been a dream of mine to go out of the country. I did go to Niagara Falls with my family for a couple of hours when I was 7 but I don't count that. I was so excited to get my passport prior to my wedding. I couldn't wait to step foot on Mexico soil during our cruise. Unfortunately because of Hurricane Paula, we never made it to Mexico and were detoured to Key West, Florida. This was a wonderful location that I had never been to before but it was in the United States! I was foiled again in my plans to get out of the country. Michael tells me that I was in International Waters but I still feel it doesn't count.

I have decided that I am going to have a series of blogs on the locations I dream about visiting. They won't be everyday, but they will be periodical and they will be fantastic. I went to bed last night dreaming of exotic locations and I feel this series is especially appropriate because of the cold weather.

First up is....the Amalfi Coast in Italy. When I think of Italy I think of great wine and pasta, pizza and decadent chocolate desserts. Of course I want to go there. But the Amalfi Coast is special. There was this great restaurant named after it in Charlotte and the owner was so nice. He sat with us one day while we were enjoying our antipasti and gazing at the photos of the place on the wall and told us about the great culture and beauty. I fell in love. I vowed it was a place I wanted to visit. www.amalficoast.com

 Located on the western side of the country, what I find so picturesque about the place is the roughed terrain and how the white villas sit right on the coast as well as the side of the mountains. I can only imagine the views from one of those villas. Also, the water I have seen in pictures is the bluest I have ever seen so close to land. Just thinking about it makes me relaxed. I'll leave it at that for now, I'm going to go warm up on this cold Saturday morning thinking about my dream location. Ciao!

Twindom

I have a twin sister. We are not identical or fraternal, but half-identical. Not going into too much biology, but instead of having one egg, fertilized by one sperm and then a split like in identical twins, and unlike two separate eggs and separate sperm like in fraternal, our situation occurred that one egg split and then was fertilized by two separate sperm. Basically, we share the share DNA from our mother but different from our father, as opposed to both or neither as in the other cases.

I have never really thought about the schematics until recently when I read this book Identical Strangers written by twins that were separated and adopted by different families unknowingly and were reunited later in life in their thirties.

I couldn't imagine what my life would be like without Aileen, or what it would be like meeting her for the first time at age 35. We are so different yet so similar. She is quite honestly the only person in this world that I feel I can be completely blunt with. I don't know why this is, but it is. I don't understand some of her choices and sometimes I wonder if we would ever be friends if we weren't sisters, but at the same time I have these urges to be with her sometimes and I have this overwhelming sense of missing her. I can't explain it.

It was interesting to read about these women noticing their similiarities and differences and grappling with the huge idea of identity and nature vs. nuture while trying to find their birth mother. It makes me feel lucky to have spent my whole life with Aileen.

Many people have asked me what it's like to be a twin. I usually tell them I don't know what life would be like not being one. But if I am in the mood to talk about it more, I usually tell them it's both a blessing and a curse. I don't enjoy always being compared to her both physically and emotionally and I didn't like having to share things sometimes, especially as a young child (i.e. birthday presents, milestones in our lives). But I have cherished the fact that I always had someone to talk to at night before going to sleep, someone to eat lunch with on the first day of school in a new city, and someone to play with when my friends couldn't come over.

But what struck me as the biggest blessing after reading about how these twins missed out on their childhood together, is that Aileen was there with me through all of it. She is the person's whose life is closest to my experiences. She is the only one who can commiserate with me the time I had a 105 temperature and didn't tell my parents because I wanted to swim, the time we petted what was most likely a rabid racoon at my grandfather's house in Florida, how it felt to be on my own for the first time in North Carolina and many other events. On my wedding day, my sister wept behind me as my maid of honor as I said my vows. I asked her later what made her cry.  She said it was because she realized all the emotions I went throught to get there and how much I wanted this to happen in my life ever since I was a little girl. It made me cry at how grateful I was to have her beside me.

And though we are so different in so many ways in that I can't explain away through simply just genetics or environment, I believe it is because we grew up together and share some of the same genes that we will always share something in common...we will always love each other intensely forever.