I did it!!!

I just love to hear those words . . . "I did it" . . .from my grandson when he is pursuing something and finally accomplishes it. Well, this morning . . . I did it! After 2 weeks of falling away from my half-marathon training, I got up very early and did it and it felt great. I repeated the run plan in Week 4 of my Couch to 5K training plan since that is where I fell away. I decided if I was able to complete it, I would move on to Week 5 training on Thursday. So that is my goal! Week 5, here I come!!!

And I also felt encouragement to push through since my daughter-in-law ran in the Lewis and Clark Half-Marathon in St. Louis in the pelting, stinging rain from the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. I thought that if she could do what she did, I should move forward. Thanks for the encouragement, my sweet daughter-in-law! I'm so proud of her! You can read the details of her run by clicking on her blog under my favorite blog sites. It is called Twisi's Xanga.

Take the Shackles Off My Feet

I just felt like breaking into that song as I clocked out and left work today. I know you can picture me doing that! The last, most final day of open enrollment . . . ending with no disappointment late into the afternoon as I worked with 1 person in my office, 2 waiting in the hall and several phone calls in between as we resolved that open enrollment deadline issue.

Even though it totally tires me out, it is so rewarding to be able to get people in under the wire. They are happy and grateful and I can smile through it all since I know that it is the last day of that particular pressure. The adrenaline was really flowing as I drove home.

Hopefully now I can muster up the energy to get back into that half-marathon training. The last few weeks have been a real struggle and I've been doing that nasty food-grazing thing again.

I feel another new beginning in the air! The race is on!

San Antonio Adventures

WOW – that’s all I can say. Traveling with my 2 very special siesta friends to meet up with many, many more siesta friends in San Antonio – what a treat!

We left Huntsville airport bright and early on Thursday morning, August 21 and arrived right on time in San Antonio. We hailed a taxi to Oak Hills Church for some Women’s Ministry Leadership Training and the taxi meter went up, up, up! Finally resting on $41.00, we arrived at Oak Hills and had wonderful training sessions followed by great praise and worship that evening. Since our taxi adventure was so expensive, we sought a ride back to our hotel. The sweet ladies who gave us a ride had a GPS in their car and the funniest thing was when the calm, gentle female voice on the GPS told us to “turn right on Al-aaaaaa-mo.” We continued to refer to the Alamo as the Al-aaaaa-mo all weekend.

We got up early on Friday morning to exercise in the hotel’s workout room. I couldn’t get behind on my half-marathon training. After 30 minutes on the treadmill alternating my jog/walk routine, Karen asked what we wanted to do next – meaning in the line of exercise. Well, usually that is all I do, but Sharron and I did not want to appear wimpy, so we headed to the exercise bikes for more workout. We really thought we wouldn’t be able to walk after an hour of intense exercise, but we all faired very well. The machines even told us how many calories we had burned off, so we made sure to eat all of those extra calories throughout the day.

After some sight-seeing at the River Walk, the Al-aaaaa-mo, and the downtown area, we caught a taxi to meet our siestas who were arriving from all over the US. We met at a local Mexican restaurant to have our first taste of Tex-Mex and it was delicious. But even more delicious was getting to see all the bloggy friends we had never met in person. Melana and Miesta Moose were the first ones that we recognized and I’ve included a picture of the first few siestas to gather at Pico de Gallo.

After a delicious lunch, we walked back to our hotel (more calorie burning) along with our new Siesta friend, Cindy, to get ready for the big Siesta Fiesta Living Proof Live conference at the Al-aaaaaa-mo Dome. We got all registered and found our seats to get ready for some great praise and worship with Travis and the Praise Team and excellent teaching by Beth and we were not disappointed by either.

Karen, Dianne, Sharron, Cindy

Beth's topic was Inheritance based on Psalm 16:5-6. We learned the following truths about our inheritance - that I am an heir of God and my life is not left to chance, I am inheriting a kingdom, God is my portion and I am His, the down-payment has been made, my boundary lines form a pleasing place, the will has been activated, I can be secure and I have a beautiful inheritance.

As I posted earlier, we got to apply a good bit of this right away while stranded an extra night in Dallas. We added some life experiences to our boundary lines and they were indeed a pleasing place. We laughed and sang with other sweet siestas who were in the same boat - I mean plane - and had a blast!

I have a reputation for breaking out in song and on the diverted flight, I sat next to a very "interesting" passenger who actually took pictures of clouds and showed them all to me and read and discussed snippets from the book he was reading. He even wanted me to summarize what I learned from the conference to him and although I don't think he actually got it, I was able to share! Then, he told me that he was a "whatever will be" kind of person . . . so, you guessed it . . . I did my best Doris Day rendition of "que sera sera" with my friend Sharron joining in and this guy actually sang with us. Everyone around us laughed their heads off. My friend, Karen, was talking to her husband who is our praise team worship leader and he said, "Tell me they aren't singing on the plane!" He had the nerve to say that I was no Doris Day!! Of course she told him that we were indeed singing.

So many adventures . . . so little time. Here is a picture of the remaining 5 "distressed passengers" on Sunday morning waiting for our rescheduled flight home.

Distressed Travelers ? ? ?

Distressed Travelers . . . that’s the name that we were given by American Airlines, but we weren’t really distressed at all. Mainly because we had just been given fuel concerning our inheritance and we just looked at our plight knowing that our boundary lines had fallen for us in pleasing “sweet” places.

Me and my two traveling companions, Sharron and Karen, left San Antonio at the appropriate time; however, as we were approaching Dallas airport, things began to change. There had been some stormy weather there so our plane was behind several others in a holding pattern. After “holding” awhile, our pilot decided we needed some more fuel and diverted us to Austin to “fill her up.” We were all very thankful that he decided to do that, but did wonder if the pump clicked off at $50.00 on his last fueling attempt. The diversion threw us behind and when we arrived back at Dallas, our connecting flight had left. We met up with 5 other siestas who were in the same boat and were all put up at a “distressed traveler” rate at a nearby Baymont Inn. It gave us opportunity to get to know 5 more of our siestas – 2 from Nebraska, 2 from Huntsville and 1 from Nashville.

I have so many interesting stories concerning our trip, but I’ll save it for when I am a little more refreshed so you will enjoy it completely! It was so wonderful to be with all our siestas this weekend! Was that a little glimpse of what heaven will be like – Presence, People and Property! I think so! What a great privilege it was to worship and fellowship with all of you.

I’m enjoying so much looking at all of your pictures. I’ll send pictures and more posts in the days to come.

Week Three Day One

Keeping right along with my "Couch to 5K" training, I have to tell you that today I finished well! I started with some stretches, then Sheila the wonder dog and I set out to start a new training week. We walked briskly for 5 minutes, then jogged for 90 seconds, walked for 90 seconds, ran for 3 minutes, walked for 3 minutes and then repeated that one more time. I reduced my time by 8 minutes and I'm totally excited. I've been walking 2 miles off and on for several years and generally do it in a little over 30 minutes, but today I finished that same distance in 22 minutes. Whoo hoo!!!!!
I will admit that I was wringing wet when I got home, but I finished well!
On a humorous note, the hubby of my best friend called me last night to see if I was watching the women running the marathon in the Olympics. He and my friend were curious if I would wear the same running attire that those ladies do and the answer is no, no, no!!! The world just isn't ready for that yet.

The Insurance Lady

Part of my job includes enrolling new employees to our school system in their insurance benefits. I also assist existing employees with open enrollment questions. Therefore, my identity for the most part in the school system is "The Insurance Lady." When they call the switchboard or come into the office, they simply ask for "The Insurance Lady" and the call comes right to me.



Isn't is interesting to hear all the ways that we are identified throughout our lives. When we are children, we are known as "so and so's" daughter. Then we we get married, we are "so and so's" wife or he becomes "so and so's husband." As our children get older, we are "so and so's" mom. As we have grandchildren, we become whatever name that first precious grandchild begins to call us. My husband and I often now refer to each other as "Grammy" and "Papa" since we are grandparents. Then, in our workplace, we get all sorts of creative names pertaining to our job - like "The Insurance Lady!"



Those identities are all fun and great, but I keep getting drawn back to One that I want to be identified with more than any of the rest. Our identity in Christ is what sets us apart as believers. The song, "In Christ Alone", pretty well sums up how I feel about my relationship with Christ. And in just a few days, I'll be singing it together with many of my Siestas from bloggyland in San Antonio!

A New Plan

Completed Day 2 of Week 2 of training this morning. I decided for now that running in the morning will be much easier - before the hotter temps later in the day.

So . . . this morning I got up a little before 5, had my quiet time, then set out around 5:50 with my trusty companion dog, Sheila. She just loves to exercise with me. When I put my tennis shoes on, she starts getting excited and by the time I reach for her leash, she is dancing all over the place.

So I put the earphones on with iPod playing some great praise and worship music and it was so wonderful. I just love the peacefulness of early morning.