Eye of the Kitten

Just cause I'm not quite up to saying I hear The Eye of the Tiger (by Survivor) in my head yet, but I'm pretty gosh darn close. Last Friday I finished week 5 of Couch to 5K which was a 20 minute run. And. I. Did. It. When that 20 minute mark passed, I did a happy dance right there on the track and exclaimed "I am the bomb!" (actually, I think I exclaimed something else, but that's not appropriate for polite reading) In any case, I was STOKED!

If someone had told me from week 1 through today that I could've done that, I would've called them Cruisazy. At this point, I don't care if it's Cruisazy. It does work.

I started doing this because I knew I had some trips this summer where I wouldn't be able to pop in my beloved Turbo Jam or Rockin' Body dvds and knowing my tendency to revert to true Couch Potato status in the time it takes to eat a Little Debbie Snack cake, I wanted to find something portable. What's more portable than my own two feet? The true test will start this week as I leave for Creation (see right sidebar) with 25 youth. Will I get up in the morning to run? Ask me on Sunday night or Monday morning. And no judgements on how many S'Mores I end up eating!

I've had people ask me about C25K, so here's the website again: Cool Running :: The Couch-to-5K Running Plan

Spent some mad fun time last week with my cousin Darin! My daughters have officially pronounced him 'Cool and not old & stodgy'. Just what are they saying about the rest of the family? Or me? When we were young, Darin and Daryl, my sis and I pretty much swore we were going to live on the same block and raise our kids together. Turns out that Darin and I were the first in what became a long line of black sheep for our family, so we never got the chance to buy houses in the same neighborhood.

Nevertheless, in no time at all, the conversation flowed easily and we are plotting to get he and his family up here for more hang time. One night we strolled around the Mall in DC for hours, where our Capital was certainly showing off with perfect weather, lots of softball, soccer and even dodgeball games on the grounds and just that overall cool Capital feeling that we tend to take for granted having lived in the area so long. Experiencing it through his fresh eyes was truly a pleasure. There are no funny quips to be had here; only a refreshed appeciation for what a nice place DC can be.

Our pastor is leaving our church to move onto Leonardtown, MD for another church. First, my kids and all the youth in our church are completely heartbroken. Second, many adults are too. Third, I hope his passport is current because I hear you need one in that part of MD (:P). I guess you can safely say that he will be missed. My children grew up with PJ. I've watched his son grow up and come to love & occasionally discipline him as my own. Secretly, it's always been a desire to yell at a PK ever since my sis' BFF was the world's most rotten PK on the planet! JW will grow up to shake off the title of PK nicely. His heart is good and he's matured a great deal in the past couple of years. We'll miss the whole family. Sniff, sniffle...

Families made PJ scrapbook pages to send him off to his new home. He's got a penchant for shedding a few tears, so PJ, you better not tear-stain our pages! Here's our family offering: