According to Berni

Let’s talk about goals…  seems they are the talk of the town this week as I haven’t heard a single mention of Tiger Woods but everyone is a buzz about the New Year that is quickly approaching.

I’m a sucker for lists.   I am forever making lists, usually on a Post-it because in case you didn’t know,  my name is Bernadette P and I’m addicted to Post-its.  Whew, at least we got that out of the way.  Now, back to the point… at the end of last year I set my goals and resolutions for 2009 and because time flies when your having fun, it’s now time to reflect and see how I did.

Are ya ready??

My goals were to:

Listen more/talk less:

This is kind of an ‘open ended’ goal as there really isn’t a tangible end to it.  I will say that I have made a huge effort at this and still hear myself reminding me to ‘listen’ when I want to talk… I’m a work in progress, what can I say.

Run 500 miles:

Well, I have tallied up my miles and it seems I did not meet this goal.  My total was 392.  It seems I didn’t keep very good track during the summer months when I was doing alot more cycling than running, but I was able to go back thru my journal and figure out how many miles I did.   I really thought I was going to be alot closer to 500 but it is what it is.

Do a 5k/10k every month:

Goal met!!   Some months there were more than one race so I ended up with eight  5k’s, three   5 mile runs (2 of them were trail runs) and three 10k’s.  Not too shabby.

Train for and complete a 10k:

Goal met!!   I actually ended up doing three of them this year improving my time with each one.

And a half marathon:

Training for this one now and will be running the Surf City Half Marathon in February…

Ride a Century:

This one is bitter-sweet because we did the Tour de Palm Springs Metric Century last year (60 miles) and LOVED it!!  We were so excited to do the 100 miler this year but Mother Nature had other plans.   We rode the first 15-20 miles in the strongest headwinds we had ever seen, much less ride in.  The wind was SO strong we had to pedal DOWN hill!!  Anyway, by mile 72 we were spent and the rider support was sweeping the course.  We only made it to mile 72 and were so bummed.

Take one FABULOUS trip:

Vermont baby!!!!    This is my dream place and WILL be back again.   It was a week of Heaven on earth.  Goal met.

Journal the entire year:

Goal met!!!   I’ve journaled off and on throughout my life, never consistently…until this year.   Each night when I get in bed I write about my day, thoughts, dreams, frustrations, etc… I have 3 completely full journals to prove it and will most likely continue after the year is over.

Spend less/save more:

Well,  yeah.  Ok so I have more in my savings than I did at this time last year but I think my intention was to have more than I do now… but we’ll give credit where credit is due and say Goal met.

Work at living simply:

I’m going to say that the KEY words in this goal were to “Work at” and I do believe I did that…so I will say Goal met and continue to work at this one.

All in all I think I did pretty good.

Progress not perfection right girls? I think it’s important to recognize that we are all striving to be the BEST that we can be and be good to ourselves and each other…

This year I will be a bit more specific in my goals and will be posting them soon…  There is just so much I want to do or improve upon, but I also don’t want to set myself up to fail either.  It’s about pushing myself outside of the comfort zone without pushing myself off the edge… balance my friends, it’s about balance.   I’m off to walk the beam.

xoxo

10 MILES BABY!!!!  Oh, Yeeeaaaahhhhhhh!!!!

I run for hope

I run to feel

I run for truth

for all that is real.

I run for your mother, your sister, your wife

I run for you and me, my friend

I run for LIFE!

That song by Melissa Etheridge is an amazing running song!!  And the fact that she’s singing about running makes it even more powerful.

It’s funny what sort of things you can learn from running 10 miles.  Some of it useful, some not so much….

At mile 1 I learned that there probably isn’t anything my sister won’t do for me…  being that neither one of us has EVER been athletic in our lives and she at one point dislocated BOTH knees and had to have surgery to remove shards of bone from her knees, we never in a million years would have thought we’d be running 10 miles…but here we are.

At mile 2 I learned that no matter how cold it is (45 degrees is COLD to us California girls) even a light jacket will start to feel like you’ve overdressed.

At mile 3 I learned how to take above mentioned jacket and gloves off, put gloves into jacket pocket, zip it up and tie it around my waist without missing a single step.   I can only think of two occasions where this newly found skill of undressing while running could be useful.  The first is while trying to cover mileage as I was this morning without stopping, the other would be if I found the man of my dreams and was running into the bedroom with him and not wanting to STOP and undress…you get the picture.  Other than that, no use to this skill….

At mile 4 & 6 I learned that certain body parts (abs, ankle & knee) will remind me that they are still there and not to happy about the current activity but will once again quiet down on their own.

At mile 8 I learned that the old saying “what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger” is true!  Last week when we ran 8 miles, the last 2 were brutal.  This week I felt GOOD at mile 8!

And finally at mile 10 I learned that I can do ANYTHING I set my mind to do.  ANYTHING.   If my half marathon was today could I have done it?  I believe I could.  Would it have been hard? Yes.  Would it have hurt?  Yes.  But really I think that our bodies are STRONG and it’s the mental aspect that holds us back so many times.  I remember the week of Couch to 5k that jumped from an 8 minute run to a 20 minute run.  I was sure there was NO WAY I could do 20 minutes so I repeated the previous week.  I had to tell myself that I could do it…  my body was able it was my mind that was late to the party.

After our run, sister and I have a ritual,  we meet at Starbucks for coffee.  I had them add a shot of Mocha to my coffee, it was a well deserved treat!   Mmmmm good!

One last thing I learned is that according to GARMIN I burned 1172 calories this morning.  If only I had the energy to replenish them…

I think I’ll make some juice!  I see a MOVIE DAY ahead…

Run like the wind my friends….and have a wonderful day!!

xoxo

Now this is a holiday I can REALLY get into.   What do I love about Boxing Day you ask??  Well, for starters

• there is NO preparation required.
• You get to sleep in as late as you want (unless your moving today)
• you can celebrate it ANY way you want to…

I mean really, the possibilities are endless….   Feel free to Celebrate it any ole way you choose.  It’s like a ‘DIY’ holiday.  Make up the rules as you go.  I personally will celebrate Boxing Day by

• enjoying no less than 2 cups of coffee, alone in the Peace and Quiet that has taken over my house
• juice every lick of produce I currently have in my fridge
• take down the fire hazard Christmas tree
• clean, clean, clean till my daddy takes the T-bird away
• take the worlds Best Boy to Best Buy as promised (and since it’s RIGHT across the street from Sprouts I will pop in for a Produce Re-stocking like you’ve never seen before, but DON’T tell him…)
• and I will most likely end my day with some more juice

Before I actually get started on these festivities I wanted to share some memories of Christmas past….  well, yesterday IS past.

The day started at 4:30 AM.   The kids were up, opening their stockings and seeing what Santa brought them.  The way we do it is that Santa does not wrap the gift he leaves them,  that way they know which one is from Santa and his gift is usually something they love but not the BIG gift.   Inside the stockings are tons of little things like candy, new toothbrushes, hair clips, lip gloss, etc.  basically anything that will fit inside a stocking.  BUT I wrap each individual item with white tissue paper.  Sometimes everything wont fit in the stocking so it gets stacked beside it….   So, in the morning when they get up they will see their stocking and their Santa gift  and they all open their stocking stuff….   I lay in bed listening to them laugh and compare and talk.   It’s an unwritten rule that this time is theirs alone which is ok by me as I am happy to listen to this sibling interaction from my bed.  This is my personal favorite time of the morning….  they think I’m still sleeping but I’m not.

After they have eaten candy (GAWD!) and can’t stand it anymore they will come get me up….   I oooh and ahhhh over what they got from Santa while making my coffee and then we all sit around the tree.   We pass out one present at a time, starting with Makenna (youngest) and ending with me (oldest) as we watch each person open their gift.  We go round and round and round until all the gifts are gone.

So, what did I get???   Well first let me say this…

see these kids???    BEST kids EVER!!!    Just sayin’

These kids outdid themselves this year!!  They got me SO MUCH awesome stuff!!  I am still in awe over the things they got me but the cherry on top was this…

Oh yeah baby….   come to mama!!   See that word “COMPACT”?   Yeah, not so much, this thing is HUGE!!

Pond scum at it's finest!!

carrot, romaine and apple juice!!    Delicious!!

I was a juicing fool yesterday… probably whipped up about 4 batches of juice and loved every drop of it!   As for the kids, they were all very happy with their gifts and everyone had a wonderful day.

On Christmas Eve we took some pictures of the whole family (minus grandma who was in the house)

My dad is in the center (in grey) with Me and my sisters (white and burgundy) and all the grandkids….

I will leave you with this… remember, if you wake up before the sun and find yourself sleeping on the sofa…. people WILL put stuff on you,  this trend is not exclusive to cats.

I’m off to haul all the Christmas containers in from the garage to begin the Boxing Day celebrations…  wish me luck and energy tomorrow my friends, I will be running 10 miles at dawn.    And I’m nervous!   But, I will have some new running gear to use and will try to remember to get some photos so I can post them!  More gifts from the kiddos!!

Enjoy your day!!

xoxo

Dashing thru the snow, in a one horse open sleigh….

Whew!   It’s hard to believe this day is HERE!  I mean Chrismas falls on the same day every year, I have 365 days to prepare and somehow, some way it always seems to creep up on me.  I was the good little mama and started EARLY this year and I must have had an extra shot of self confidence in my preparation abilities because before I knew it we were a week out and now here we are and I still need to run out and get 2 gift cards…  Ho Ho Ho.

This has been a crazy busy month with School fundraisers, Holiday Performances, nephews birthdays and Christmas… well I don’t need to tell YOU, I know I’m not alone in this but geez I feel like it’s all a blur.

Lets back up to last week.  Makenna’s school had their annual Christmas program.  Her school does it up right!  They have held their program in the same theater for the past 20+ years and it is SO much fun to watch!!  If only I could figure out how to upload video I would put her performance on here, but I don’t know how so a picture of the prettiness will have to suffice.

The STAR of the show…

Mama and Makenna

BFF’s Vivian, Makenna & Alexis

O’er the fields we go, lauging all the way….

Today we will be getting together at my parents house with my sisters and their kids to celebrate.  There will be lots of food and laughter guaranteed.  Then I will have to answer the following question about  47,983 times before we finally fall into bed tonight…

“Mom, can I open just ONE present???”

You see, my kids are NEVER happy with just ONE present.  I used to let them open one on Christmas Eve but then it turned into “ONE MORE?”  so I decided we’d just save them all for Christmas morning.

I like to blame the 2 older kids for that one… poor Makenna, they ruined it for her…Bah Humbug!

Oh, the power of being a parent!

Bells on bob-tail ring, making spirits bright…

In other news… I ran 8 miles last Sunday!!!!   I am still in disbelief!

Me, the girl who could NOT run ONE single lap around the high school track when I started a little over a year ago!!!   For those of you who don’t know, the high school track is 1/4 mile.  I could not run around it without stopping, I don’t even think I could make it half way without feeling like my lungs were going to explode and I would DIE.  No joke.   I started with the Couch to 5k and have progressed from there.   Setting small goals along the way.  First a 5k (3.1 miles) then 5 miles, then a 10k and look at me now- training for a Half Marathon!!   I have never been athletic in my entire life,  I am what I like to call a “delayed onset athlete” .

So yeah, 8 miles NON STOP last Sunday, I’m pretty pumped about that one,  the first 6 miles felt really good but I ain’t gonna lie, the last 2 were pretty brutal.   And because my sister and I are beasts we’ve decided we are going to run 10 this Sunday.   We both want to hit that double digit mark before year end so this is our last chance to do that. I pray I feel as good this week as I did last week.

What fun it is to laugh and sing a sleighing song tonight…

As the year end approaches it  brings HOPE for a better New Year.  I too have been working on my goals and resolutions for next year.  I will be putting the finishing touches on that list this week and crossing off the last reached goals for this years list.

I am so very grateful to the friends I have met blogging and can’t wait to see what the new year brings to all of us.   It will be fun to see all of our goals and support each other along the way.

Now, I must be off to prepare for the day ahead…

Merry Christmas to all…..and to all a good night!

xoxo

At the end of 2008 I set some goals for 2009.  Some of them seemed a little ‘lofty’ at the time but I was feeling confident and set them anyway.

One of those goals was to run a 5k or 10k every month this year…   Well I’m SO happy to say that this morning I ran the ‘Make room for Santa 10k’  not only meeting my goal for the year BUT setting a new PR at the same time!!  I took 1 minute off my previous 10k time and with that I am thrilled!!

After the last 2 days of torrential rain I was a little nervous that we may have some rain but was determined to run rain or shine.  At about 3am I was awakened to the sound of rain, it was coming down SO hard.  I just lay there thinking ‘get it all out now please’ and when my alarm went off at 5:10 this morning NO RAIN!  Yippee!!!

My partner in crime (aka sister) Michelle, nephew Josh and me (gotta love those early morning pics- BLECH!)

My sister took 4 minutes off her last 10k time and beat me!!  She rocked this race!!  Josh aka: speedy ran the 5k in 23 minutes and never broke a sweat!!  Talk about natural talent…get this boy an agent!!  He doesn’t even realize how fast he is!!  I’m telling you to see him run it’s effortless, I can only imagine what he could do if he went out there and laid it on the line…

We got to see Santa too!  And who is that I see there??  None other than my little Makenna!!  Her daddy brought her out to cheer mama on!!   It was AWESOME having someone at the finish line waiting for me!  For that I am so very grateful.

That brings my year of running to an end as I have no other races planned for this year.  All in all I ended up doing about 15 races this year and it has been a blast.  My next race will be the Surf City Half Marathon that we are currently training for.  No goal time will be set for that race as my only goal is to finish it alive…  I’m debating on getting a shirt I saw that says “if found on ground, please drag across finish line” …   just sayin’

It has been an amazing year of running.  I’ve learned alot about myself and how strong I actually am.  Especially since the time change- it’s not easy getting out there in the cold dark morning, it would be so easy to roll over and go back to sleep some mornings.  I know in my heart that if I do that I’m only letting myself down, as no one else really cares if I’m out there or not… just me, I do it for me.  I guess that’s another good thing that came out of this year is that I’ve learned to make myself a priority.  I’ve learned that I can still be a good great mom, a good great employee and still take care of myself.  So, with that I will cross off yet another goal on my list and I look forward to setting new ones for the next year.  Who knows, maybe one of next years goals will to Post on my Blog a little more consistently…  I’m really sorry for slacking this month!  It has been so extremely crazy!!   For those of you still reading- Thank you from the bottom of my heart…

I’m off to put some lights on our tree so that we can decorate it…   I can’t tell you how wonderful it smells in here… Mmmmm

Happy Holidays my friends….

xoxo