What I've Been Up To

Running: I have been running at 6:45 in the morning about 5 days a week for a while now. At one point I had to stop for 2 weeks because my knees got so bad. I'd never felt that before. It turns out it was my shoes. They were so old and I never noticed, so I ordered new shoes and we started over, which sucked. I say "we" because I run with an old HS teammate Heather. She's always been an amazing runner and I love being around her. We get along great. She's moving to Overton soon though :( Anyway, we are still running at about the 2-3 mile range. I can tell my body is fighting it so I am trying to just be patient now that I'm older. My body is taking a LOT longer to get the hint. It seems to protest everything I do. The last few days my foot has really been acting up and getting worse. I definitely think it's my arch. I have a pretty good arch, more than less anyway and running shoes don't really give much support there, so I put my arch supports in today. My arch supports are way supportive so now my feet have to get used to them again. My poor feet are probably thinking "Make up your mind!". Hopefully they adapt to them in the next week and we can keep rolling. It's nice to run with Heather cause she's super patient because she has gone through all of this. She said getting back into running for her, there was problem after problem so she told me to just be really patient with it.

Dancing: On top of the running I am dancing about 3 nights a week. Running and Dancing- two very different types of "in shape"...The dance is fast, fun, and winds me out of breath every time. I love the HS girls I'm working with. It's fun to get to know new people and to work with them on something I love to do. We've got a good handle on managing our time. We are in the "finishing touches" stage of it. We'll be performing at the Moapa Valley Arts Counsel talent show on May 7th! All the practices will definitely be worth the rush of performing.

Reading: Okay, because of the above two things I'm guessing....I am tired! And I haven't been reading as much at night but rather just crashing into bed. So, I am taking forever to read my current read, The Thirteenth Tale. I am SO close to being done though, because really I need to re-read the HUNGER GAMES!!! for the third time, before I watch the movie, so yeah...

Coupon Shopping: I go shopping about every two weeks, and since starting in October I have really started to stock pile well. I'm getting to the point where 1. I NEED to buy a freezer 2. I only buy fresh food like milk, eggs, and produce, other than that I strictly shop the sales I want 3. It's about time to set up my big can rotator. I'm trying to decide whether we want to wait until we buy a house. It would be a NIGHTMARE to move that thing...at any rate, couponing is going well and I love it! If you are not doing it, you are paying WAY too much for food. The fact is, I spend less than I did before (Plus AZ food is cheaper than NV food!) but I get almost double the amount of food for it. I save 25-45% every time depending on what I'm shopping for, that's grocery shopping. And it'll probably get better from here. The longer you do it, the better it gets. Plus, by shopping at Smith's I get points. They add up quickly and I get $1.00 off per gallon of gas on a fill up once I've accumulated 1000 points. I accumulate it in probably 4 shopping trips (2 months).

I was coaching Marce's parks and rec basketball team. We had a great season and my players mproved a lot. Marce is now starting T-ball. It's going to be a great season! Then the boys will do swim lessons this summer.

We are gearing up for Easter, Spring Break, and the Fair! Yay! I'm excited to be around family. I miss my sister a lot!! It was hard giving her up when I moved here. I just remember her waving with the kids and me holding the tears back when we pulled out of her driveway for the last time, on our way to Nevada. These times make it alright. We can't have everything.

If we get the days off, we are taking a vacation to CA late April. I'm crossing my fingers!

Sharrid is back on Reliv. He loves that stuff and after the 2nd day, is feeling the difference. It is worth it to him to be on it, and I'm happy for him if it feels better and gives him more energy. It's basically a nutritious vitamin drink.

Phoenix got cornrows for the first time a few days ago. Wow. This is an education. I learned so much when we went. The lady who is doing them is about 45. She was really good with him, but I was prepared too. I bought an interactive Cars 2 storybook. You can also build custom cars and race them in Tokyo, Porta Corsa, London, and Radiator Springs on easy or hard settings. The kids LOVE it...anyway I also put Cars 2 the movie on there so he had plenty to do. It worked...He just let her do whatever. He cringed up when she got to the back but never really had a problem. She was cool and gave him candy and a soda. She was nice but also expected him to act like a big boy, kind of like when your kid has to answer to someone else. It's good for them. She got him to sit under the warmer when he was scared. So basically she said these first braids will maybe last 2 weeks. You can do them tighter as time goes on but for the first time, you don't want them to get a headache and their scalp has to get used to it. His hair is young and soft so she said next time she will put in a strand of fake hair in all of them. It helps them stay together longer. Once his head and hair gets used to them, you can do them tighter and do some really cool designs. I'm excited. We'll be going back the 2nd week of April for his second time. That's when he'll get the fake hair braided in and those should last closer to a month. Phoenix has to wear a do rag to bed to try and keep the braids protected. In the morning we take it off and then I put lots of mousse on all over and run my fingers over the braids going from front to back, then I carefully put the do rag back on and put mousse on top of it, running front to back again, then we blow dry all over til it's dry, then you kind of peel the do rag off and they look good as new, or at least close. I'm excited for him to get used to them cause they're dang cute and easy. No washing, no combing out tangles, no detangler spray...it's nice to have both options. When he's between cornrow appointments, he'll have the curly locks. I talked to the lady about just braiding straight out, like taking a square of hair and braiding out, so there's a lot of little braids poking out of his head, can't wait to try that, way cute! Phoenix doesn't really like attention (nothing like his mom) so he was all embarrassed when the family was oohing and ahhing when he got home. If I were black, I'd be doing all kinds of crazy stuff with my hair...oh the possibilities are endless!! He's my shy one, ha ha. We'll probably get the braids done about every 5-6 weeks.

I have a playdate this week with an old friend, Michelle. I love living in the valley. There's new friends to meet and old friends to catch up where you left off!

So that's what we've been up to...other than that I feel I'm doing way too much laundry ;)
I'm lucky I got this post up! Sorry, I'll try and get some pictures up soon!