Time

Here we are a week of May already gone. There are so many things happening so fast that sometimes it is hard to keep up. I'm not complaining though, not at all because it is all worthwhile and, in reality, there is minimal drama or conflict. I am just trying to stay a step ahead in the game.

So what's been happening you may ask. Oh, where to begin. As you may or may not know, I am a co-director for Girl Scout day camp at Howdy this year. That is almost a frightening proposition as I can barely plan my way out of a paper bag. However, those that put me in charge are confident in my ability to pull this off so who am I to argue? I am not alone in this by any means. The committee of people involved in Howdy Day Camp is extensive. We are all volunteers after the same goal: providing a safe, fun-filled week of camp to some 250 girls. Our theme this year is Camp Howdy All-Stars. We are focusing on lifelong fitness and nutrition which is so important to young girls these days. Planning is going well and things are falling into place nicely. Our first leader training is this Saturday. After that, I am sure time will fly by even faster than it already is.

Spring softball and soccer have come to an end. Nothing exceptionally noteworthy to report. I played on two soccer teams, the Macropods and SMC United (Soccer Moms). We really didn't win a lot on either team, but when you play D5 your there for the fun of the sport not a trophy at the end. Softball was about the same. Nothing really remarkable, just having fun with the sport.

Ryan's soccer team, however, had a great spring season. They were champions of the regular season and won the final tournament. They are a great group of boys. Ryan plays goalie and mid fielder. They allowed only 1 goal the whole season. His team will move up to U12 in the fall. That will bring on some new challenges for them. It will be an exciting time.

I am still a regular bootcamper and runner. Although, running has taken a bit of a backseat to everything else the past couple of weeks. My fitness routines have landed me a new "job" so to speak. I am now a certified personal trainer. What does that mean? Well, I sometimes fill in as the lead instructor for bootcamp sessions and I have two "clients" that I train in small group. That's pretty fun because I get to make up the workouts for my clients. No, I am not going to quit my day job. This is just something I can do on the side, earn a little extra cash and help people meet their own fitness/weight loss goals.

Okay, so I am going to sign off for now. I'll try to come back more often.

Where does the time go?

Wow! I can't believe how long it has been since I posted anything here. So much has changed, yet so much is the same. There is no excuse really, just plain busy. Well, I guess Facebook has also detracted a bit from keeping this up. So let's pretend that it hasn't been a year and a half and see what happens.

We have just finished up another cookie season in Girl Scouts. I am very proud of Nicole. She made her goal to sell 1200 boxes of cookies. She actually ended up selling 1224. That's up a bit from her total of 1121 last year. She was also a Cookie Captain this year. In this program, she spent an additional 25 hours promoting and mentoring younger troops during the cookie sale. So what does all this effort get her? Well, to start with, she has earned over $300 in cookie dough which she will be using to pay for her week of summer resident camp. She enjoyed Camp Texlake so much last year, she begged to go back again this year. Registration is already in and we just received her confirmation packet. She will be attending Glamazons June 14-18. This is the week right after our local day camp.

Speaking of day camp, I have taken on the role of co-director for Camp Howdy day camp this year. Last year, I was an assistant co-director or DIT (director in training) as we liked to call ourselves. So far, we have picked the theme, fitness and nutrition, and the name ~ Camp Howdy All-Stars. It's a great opportunity to teach the girls about life-long health and wellness.

We two weeks into Ryan's soccer season. He is playing for the same coach as last year. They are called the Strikers this year. What a great group of boys! They have come a long way since they started playing together and it shows in their game. They are passing well and their defense is incredible. They are 2-0 so far and have not given up a single goal.

With spring upon us, our adult sports have also started. I am playing softball for a couple of teams and acting as a sub whenever time allows. The past couple of weeks have been almost too cold for softball, but it will warm up soon enough. We also have two weeks of soccer under our belts. Both Terry and I play for Macropods. We are 1-1. I am also playing goalie for the soccer moms. We don't win very often, but we never give up either.

I guess one of the biggest changes since the last time I posted is my physical condition. I have been going to boot camp with Innovative Fitness for almost a year now. It's been great. All together I have lost 35-40 pounds (depends on the day) and am in the best shape of my life. I have taken up running for fun and semi-competitively. On the competitive side, I mostly run local 5Ks for charities. However, on Valentine's day I ran my first 1/2 marathon in Austin. It was the biggest run that I have ever participated in. There were over 8,000 runners in the 1/2 and over 12,000 combined running in the 1/2 and full marathon. It was incredible to say the least. I finished the 13.1 miles in 1 hour and 47 minutes which placed me 32 out of 739 in my division (Female; 35-39). Not bad for my first time around. I don't know if I am really interested in improving that time or not. The next big adventure will be to run a full marathon, but that is going to take a bit more training. Maybe next year.

I think for now, I will stick with the fun stuff and leave things like work updates for another time and maybe another place. I really am going to try to do better at this. If nothing else, it will help me remember all the fun stuff we do.