Thankful On Paper - Week Two

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This week I am thankful for my three parents. 

Or more literally, my mom, dad and Ammah.

Maybe its too obvious, but I really feel like I could never than them enough.

Ammah was more than a grandmother who I occasionally visited. She was a part of our life nearly every day growing up. 

Ammah makes the best chicken fried steak and white, thick gravy that you will ever EVER taste.

Ammah went rollerblading with us when rollerblading was all the rage.

Ammah taught me the beauty of a Sunday afternoon nap on the floor with a blanket, old movie and some brownies fresh out of the oven.

When I was 21, Ammah and I took off in my 2 wheel drive 4Runner to find the Grand Canyon (pre-GPS). Most of it was on dirt roads with no signs and I'm pretty sure we were in a few places we weren't supposed to be, but between the constant jangle of the change in my ashtray, my visors flopping down and our incessant laughter we made it to some point at the edge of the canyon. 

Ammah is an amazing woman of God, and has been an example of strength and faithfulness.

My dad is my hero. Always has been and always will be. I think of my dad when I watch movies like Braveheart...noble, honorable, courageous. He is a visionary and speaks in terms of a vision. 

One time on a family vacation our car broke down in Modesto and we literally coasted into the parking lot of a church on Sunday morning. After attending the service, my dad approached the pastor and told him we were "wayfaring strangers." I thought my mom was going to disappear beneath a pew. But he is the one who has always and will always encourage us to set off on a voyage and explore new things. 

I also think of my dad when I watch movies like Cheaper by the Dozen or Parenthood. Goofy, zany, and always a blast. My young cousin once told him he was like a real life video game.

A few months before I got married I got to go to Uganda with my dad. It was a trip I'll never forget, and all the more precious that I got to spend it with him.

In a few words, my dad is a joy magnet. 

My dad taught me that some men can be trusted, dads are good, and that our Heavenly Dad is even better. 

He is a walking example of love and joy.

My mom is my best friend. I don't know if that has anything to do with her reverse psychology of telling me while I was in first grade that one day in high school I may not like her, but if it does then it worked and I am so doing that with my daughter if we have one.

For all her constant complaint about not having a great education growing up, my mom is one of the smartest women I know. She has the gift of discernment, which is awesome except for when I've slipped up. 

My mom laughs louder than anyone I know. In high school during plays, we could hear her laugh  carried through the actor's microphones and through the speakers in the back. She's also one of the funniest people I know. Between her and Ammah I think the only reason I didn't have a six pack from laughing so much was the white gravy.

Together, my mom and I are some kind of indomitable force. Maybe its God's plan we live half across the country from each other right now. If we lived closer we just might take over the world and get things running right. 

Give us a swatch of cloth, a toothpick and a diet coke and we'll give you a production.

I am the Baby Girl, and my mom is an amazing pointer to Jesus. Her heart for broken people overflows with healing love that's exemplary of how Christians are supposed to be.

Thanks Dad, Mom, and Ammah, for training me up in the way I should go, for loving me enough to discipline me, and for giving me roots and wings.

Oh yeah...and my mom and dad are flying in to Seattle TONIGHT!!!! I can barely contain the excitement!!!!!!!!!

Panting...

This past week has been absolutely nonstop.

Upside is I've been falling asleep a lot faster than I ever have!

Downside is I may have bitten off more than I can chew, and all this time spent on aprons and running and training and writing leaves little time just to be with my hubby.

And that's not a good thing.

So while I'm still definitely doing The Ruffled Owl thing (get your orders in soon for Christmas!), and still going to keep training for a half marathon in January (gulp), I think the area I may slack off on is going to be the writing. If you'll note the little gadget on the right hand side that shows my NaNoWriMo progress, you'll see I'm about 5,000 words behind at the moment.

I'm not ditching the effort entirely, but I'm not going to let myself feel guilty if I don't meet my daily quota.  I will let myself feel guilty for not spending time with my husband.

If only I could figure out a way to squeeze six or seven more hours into the day...

Thankful on Paper, Week One

Taking a cue from Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane's Rachel Reeves, I'm joining this month in being Thankful on Paper. 

I thought a lot about who I would write to. Only four to highlight? I could write to ten people every day of the month and still have more to thank! 

This also being NaNoWriMo, and I being in the throes of writing (or trying to keep up), I thought about dedicating each Thursday to four people who really influenced my imagination and my thirst for all things literary. A babysitter growing up, my fifth grade teacher Miss Ruth, and my two high school English teachers - Ziretta and Hamilton.

Then I realized that only one of them I could actually send a letter to. So as kinda a cheater first Thankful Thursday, here are the four I was going to do but can't exactly.

I don't even remember the babysitter's name, only that she would gather my brother and I around a globe, and we would take turns spinning it and stopping it with our finger. Then she would leave us in the room for five minutes to prepare for our "expedition," and when we came out she would somehow have converted parts of our house to wherever we were traveling. Even if it was somewhere in Mexico and she slapped on a Chevy's sombrero, grabbed my parent's maracas and made tacos...it made an impression. So thanks...Unnamed Babysitter.

I have no idea where Miss Ruth went, but we read so many interesting books in that class...books I still have! And I'm pretty sure she was completely aware that I was reading far ahead under my desk during the "read out loud" part of class, but she never said a word. She was one of the only teachers who could give a legit answer when I would ask why I needed to know what we were learning (ie math will always be a part of life). Before her all I got was that it was prep for the next grade.

Ziretta was one of those wacky, dead-poets-society-type teachers who would take his podium up on a counter to quite literally look over our shoulders while we took a test to make sure no one cheated. If I ever began to zone out in class he would make his way over to my desk and SLAP his hand down scaring the bejeebers out of me while yelling out my last name--CURRAN! Quirks aside, he also showed me how much deeper you can look into literature, and kept urging me to join the Orange County Academic Decathalon.  I think I only went to one meeting, but it was nice knowing someone thought I was smart enough that I should join. 

Mrs. Hamilton carried that theme of digging into literature over into AP English, giving me my first taste of Pride & Prejudice, and making us practice writing over and over and over until we had it drilled in our head that the first lines of anything were the most important ('scuze me while I rewrite the opening of this blog). She was also my freshman English teacher, and on the first day wore a black snake necklace with ruby eyes. No one dared cross her, but the longer you knew her the more you found she really is a softie. Okay maybe softie isn't the right word, but definitely a gem. She still works at Calvary...and I've had a card I've been meaning to send her for years...maybe I'll actually get around to it this month!

ALLL that to say that rather than focus on these influential people, I chose to highlight people I can actually get in touch with.

First up is Charissa.

2003 at the Tower of London
My randomly-picked roommate my freshman year of college. She taught me that some rules are okay to break. We've had pillow fights and peanut fights and newspaper fights, and during one torrential rainstorm we headed to the softball field and she taught me some basic training combat moves in the mud. I still have the pajamas that were dyed orange from the gritty and slimy field. 

We backpacked around the UK and Ireland together, explored alleys, got to play Eddie Vedder's guitar and Miles Davis' trumpet in the basement vault of the Hard Rock Cafe while the tour guide flipped off the alarms for us and went upstairs to smoke a joint. 

We've cried together, called each other out, and I've lost track of the times I've been called a nag. We flew a kite in a sandstorm, woke up outside on an Easter morning to the sound of coyotes, got scared out of our wits by a mule's head appearing in my driver side window and chewing on my steering wheel, and hopped a fence to sit in a hotel hot tub and smoke cigars, but I still can't get her to go nossing with me.

She taught me that thankfully our Lord is a God of grace. 

Grace is getting what we don't deserve. 

And that's what she is, a friend I don't deserve. 

Love you Charis.

she's going to kill me to putting this picture up...

Just Do It

I'm sure all of you know Nike's mantra, Just Do It.

Sometimes I get so sick of advertising, but yesterday I was actually grateful for this one.

Yesterday was one of those days that your eyes pop open when the alarm goes off because you know you've got lots to do.

I quickly got dressed and then sat down with a mug of coffee to begin my NaNoWriMo 2010 story. Outside a storm dumped barrels of water that the wind whipped up into an all-soaking mist. I wrote without thinking, working fast to beat the clock. Within 20 minutes I had almost 500 words down, then I brushed my teeth, kissed my hubby and my dog and ran out the door to work.

During my lunch hour I cranked out another 600 words...its not great stuff but at least its down! That's the whole point of NaNoWriMo...just get your first rough draft down! I tend to want to go back and comb over the first chapter with a fine tooth comb. Its the most important part, after all. Its what sets the tone, sucks readers in and snags your attention like a gorilla in a tutu.

Maybe I've been free writing a bit too much...

Anyways, after work I raced home to do my daily training for this crazy half-marathon I'm going to attempt in January. It was in the low fifties but with the blustery wind still spraying rain it felt a lot colder.

And it was getting dark.

I really really really did not want to run outside.

But Roy needed exercise, and I've promised myself I can order the book Born To Run if I finish three weeks of training...and I really want to read that book. 

So I put on my Nikes and started off. I don't know if it was the hills or the wind or the rain, but it was the most challenging run to date. I was nearing our neighborhood and it was totally dark by this time, but I still had about a mile to go. My calved burned, I was sweating and cold from the wind, Roy was even beginning to drag, and I was getting ready to call it quits and go in and get warm when a song came on my extremely random mix of motivational tunes on Matt's iShuffle. I had the music turned down low so I could hear cars on the main street (where I was not only being pelted by the storm but by the splash of cars driving by as well), and I caught a glimpse of the chorus.

No matter how hopeless, No matter how far...

 I hit rewind and started running again.  It was the song, "The Impossible Dream," from Man of La Mancha. Isn't that what I'm doing? Me, run 13.1 miles? Four is still kicking my butt! It really does seem like an impossible dream. But of all songs on my iShuffle that one kicked me back into high gear. I rounded a few more cul-de-sacs in our neighborhood and felt like I was in some Nike commercial...just do it. I just needed a bolt of lightning for dramatic effect.

And I did. I finished the last mile and had the worst time I've had to date but didn't really care. At least I finished it.

And a hot shower was all the reward I needed.

Then I made dinner, met up for an online book club and then finished my 1,660 words for the day.

And slept really well last night.

All that to say, sometimes you really do just have to lace up your Nikes and just do it. And you find you can.

What Am I Getting Myself Into?

I've never been one to sit still.

As a kid I was perpetually twirling. Spinning. Fidgeting. Scrunching my nose.

Driving my mom and Ammah crazy.

Things haven't really changed.

For Matt, a perfect day off is when he does nothing.

For me, a perfect day off is when I cross off everything on my list.

I like having a full plate, and with the launch of The Ruffled Owl, my own BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) of running a half marathon in January, and--oh yeah--working full time, I'm also signing myself up again for the yearly NaNoWriMo.

Nanoo-what-oh?

Its short for National Novel Writing Month...which is November.

The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

Please stop laughing.

The first time I signed up for it was the month I got married. 

Told you I like to keep busy.

I've attempted it twice before and actually churned out some pretty good stuff before I fizzled out halfway through and fell hopelessly behind. Now I'm debating do I want to pick up one of those stories and write another 50K words on it? I'm not sure yet but I'm running out of time so I'll have to make a decision soon.  Actually, that's what novel writing is. Making a lot of decisions and putting them down on paper.

So wish me luck. Then more luck. Add a third cuz that's what I'll need as I plunge into this crazy insane season of sewing and crafting and holidays and writing and running and stretching and traveling and cooking and all that good stuff.

Anyone else interested in joining the craziness?

A Baby Quilt and a New Goal

So I've had these pictures for a couple weeks and have been dying to show them! But I couldn't because this was a gift by a person who occasionally reads the blog (well, she may not now with TWO munchkins!) and I didn't want to give it away!

Introducing...the Aisley Quilt

the backside...

You might recognize some of the fabric from The Carol Apron...

because it was for her baby!

Congrats Carol and welcome to the world little Aisley! (isn't that an awesome name???)

If you're interested in either a baby quilt or a custom apron, you can check out The Ruffled Owl!

On another note I've set a sort-of-crazy-what-are-you-thinking-goal for myself. Last Monday I decided to try to run a half marathon in January.

That's 13.1 miles, people.

That's farther than it is from my house to my job.

And I haven't really been running.

Am I doomed?

Possibly.

Why would I do this to myself, you ask?

I have to say I was initially inspired by No. 17 Cherry Tree Lane's Rachel Reeves. She ran her first marathon - a Run for Mobility marathon in which the Free Wheelchair Mission partnered with the Surf City Marathon.

She blogs about it here and I mentioned it during my Wardrobe Challenge here. 

It had been rolling around in the back of my head and I was running a bit more than I used to (which was not at all), but I'm the kind of person who needs a goal. And if I did a 5K I know I would slack off and then have a miserable time on the day of the race but still manage to pull it off. A half-marathon, though, I can't slack off on. Then I saw something in fitness magazine about looking up their half-marathon training schedule online...and did it. And thought, heck, I can do that.

I don't have a goal for how fast I want to run it...if i can drag myself across the finish line within the four hour cutoff point I'll be glad. 

I'm hoping I cross it looking like this:

Somehow I have a feeling I'll end up going across like this:

I've had my current running shoes for quite awhile, so I thought I would test out the "barefoot" trend and try a pair of Nike Free Run shoes. They're so much lighter and more flexible than my old shoes!

And then I did something I've never ever ever ever done in my life before.

I joined a gym.

(gulp)

Matt has belonged to a lot of gyms and been talking about joining again, so when we found a coupon I figured it was worth $30 a month for both of us to sign up. With it getting dark so much quicker up here, and this gearing up to be a really wet and cold season, I figure a gym is a good backup for running and cross training.

Last night I laced up my new Nikes and hopped on a treadmill.

First I had to get over that creepy gym feeling. Plugging my ears with headphones I ignored the idea that everyone was looking at my jiggling butt with the ever-widening crack-sweat. No one really wants to see that anyways.

When I started running my feet felt deliciously light and cool! I ran my first stretch (I walk/run cuz I'm a newbie like that) and it felt amazing! WOW!

I also noticed I kept weaving to the left, and my right side felt like it was working a whole lot harder! Hmmm...what gives? I guess two years of walking Roy on my left side has messed up my running alignment! Woops!

Around 2 miles I started noticing that burning in my calves. So I walked. The next time running I felt it creep up into my hamstrings.  By the time I stepped off the treadmill and felt like there was fire licking up the back of my legs and into my glutes I realized I may have overdone it a tad.

Wearing those light shoes makes you run on your toes...which is great...unless your muscles are used to running on your heels. In that case, you're focusing all that energy on previously lightly used muscles...and giving them one heck of a workout.

When we went to the grocery store to get some eggs and I found myself hobbling around the aisles I knew I had overdone it. Woops.

Good thing today is a cross training day where I'll probably just hobble around with Roy. Maybe I'll try walking him on my right side today.

So yeah, there's my ridiculous goal that involves a 12 week training program and probably a lot of sore muscles.

Wish me luck.

Raffle for a Ruffled Owl Apron (and a good cause!)

Today through Monday, October 25th, you can enter a raffle over on Naptime Diaries to win a Ruffled Owl apron!

AND you're donating to a good cause!

What's not to love?

http://www.naptimediaries.com/