Ok, ok, ok, so i have been lazy with my photo entries and lack of words. I guess i have not had much to say. To which BBE would chuckle and think, "Yeah right, Michelle have NOTHING to say???" The boyfriend and I are certainly a contrasting duo. He is very quiet and I hardly shut the hell up. He tends to think and ponder things before he says them out loud, I am often having to say, "Oh wait! No, I didn't mean it like THAT! What I meant to say was..." Yeah, we are different in lots and lots of different ways. But somehow it works. And for that, I am so very grateful. I loves him lots.

So besides work and school I have been taking it easy with my own work right now. I know that I am going to be getting another phone call soon enough for two more coloring books so I am resting while I can. And by resting I mean, training for a 13.1 mile race. Cause apparently I always need something to focus on or else I can't do anything. That, and a beach trip at the end of May where I will be wearing a bathing suit and many pictures will surely be taken. Lord help me I don't want to see those pictures and think, "If I had just done SOME kind of exercise way back in January, I wouldn't be having to kill myself right now after looking at my giant butt on the beach!" So really? The running is just making sure the kids have a mom come June. See? I am so selfless like that. Heh.

Actually I love running. I have done it since I was in sixth grade when I asked my dad if I could do with him. It was the early 80's and my dad had gotten the jogging bug in the 70's and was always running some race or another on a Saturday. He used to wake up early to run before work. So when I asked him if I could go, he said yes, as long as I got up when he woke me up. And he would NOT call me twice. I got up on the first wake up call or I missed the run. I am proud to say, I don't think I ever missed a run, maybe one or two, but I honestly don't think I did. I LOVED those runs with my dad. He started me off with somewhere between a quarter mile and a half mile then when we got back to the house he would go on further. We did that for years and years and years right up until my senior year in high school. I never did track or cross country, I was always a softball girl, but I loved my morning runs with my dad. I kept up my running in college and that was when I ran my first half marathon, 17 years ago. I ran it with a boyfriend that didn't train like he should have and I left him behind at the five mile mark. See, my dad taught me (right or wrong) that you don't stop when you are running. You just keep going no matter what and finish the distance you had set to run. I do that to this day. Probably to a fault. I laughed with him about it this weekend because when my boyfriend and I were running our 4 miler he stopped to walk for a minute or two and I wouldn't . he asked me about it on our run and I said it was not out of being competitive, but it has been ingrained in me, DO NOT STOP. So i don't. And when I left my boyfriend at 19 years old behind and waited for him at the finish line, imagine my astonishment when he was PISSED off at me. He would not talk to me for like 2 hours. Go figure. Stupid boy. You should have trained. Why should I stop just because you didn't do your homework? Luckily current boyfriend is not like that and he is of the school that walking here and there for a minute or two is perfectly acceptable. And he knows I won't stop for him. Cause I am mean like that. See? he puts up with all my mental blocks. heh.

So anyway, I have kept up with running more or less since college. But babies then toddlers then school can easily get in the way of running if you make it a perfectly acceptable excuse. So I have decided to get back into it like I really want to, and go figure, when you make it a priority, you have plenty of time to do it! Although I have to say, my kids are older and i have a treadmill. If my kids were still little and I didn't have a treadmill I would have a hard time. Right now I can have them start their homework, tell them I will be running for the next hour and I will help them with anything right when I am done. Without the treadmill i would probably not go running for an hour after school. So I really do NOT want to be all holier than thou on the whole "if you make exercise a priority crap" because hello? For those if us with kids? And the SMALL and maybe YOUNG variety? Fitting in exercise at times is for real impossible. And screw you if you think otherwise. And if you have them and CAN be holier than thou? You either have LOTS of money and have a gym with daycare or have an amazing partner that watches said children (and has the extra time in his or her life) while you have an hour to yourself. Good for you if you have either of those. You are lucky. And maybe in a minority.

Ok, I need to run and actually get some work done. Better get and post this while I still can.

And I have to run 3 miles tonite. See how I brought that round full circle? Um. Yeah.