My third post about Crystal Light Pure Fitness water is now up and alive and running (literally!  It’s running!).  Want to find out what motivates me to be healthy?  Click here, then make sure you comment to be entered to win . . .

Check out my first post about my journey with Crystal Light’s Pure Fitness water - there are three more to come.  And best of all, you can win win win something - just by commenting!

My training group meets every Saturday morning at 7.30 am.  It’s the one group run we have each week - it’s also the easiest for me because of all the support.  This week, Rachel, our trainer, posted the following message before we met up: 

We have a special visitor tomorrow!  Roger Reynolds, owner of Romp n Roll Mechanicsville and founder of CJ’s Thumbs Up Foundation, will be running with us.  Roger recently lost his 4.5 year old daughter to a brain tumor.  He and his wife began this non-profit organization to benefit other families facing the life threatening illnesses.  In order to raise money, Roger has decided to challenge himself by running TWO marathons in 34 days!  I am honored to be coaching Roger through this challenge and invited him to join us tomorrow.

When Roger showed up at the meeting place, he was so strong and together, I figured it had been a while since his daughter had passed away.  Turns out she passed away in January of this year.  Since then, Roger and his wife have managed to raise tons of money.  His story is inspiring - it’s also heartbreaking.  Running IS cheaper than therapy, and there is rarely a Saturday run that passed where one of us isn’t tearful (with joy or sadness) about something.  I think it’s safe to say many of us were touched and amazed at CJ’s story.  Once I could get over the sadness I felt that his daughter suffered and passed away from something like this, I felt understood.  Roger is coping with his grief partly by running - and running has been one of the best tools I’ve had at my disposal for dealing with my own grief and sorrow. 

Please check out the site and if you want to help, there are many ways to get involved.  It was truly a privilege meeting Roger.  It was even better getting to run with him. 

I forgot to post pictures of my living room.  I finished it awhile ago - but never posted them.  Here they are. 

It seems very unimportant today to post them.  A long-time friend just found out his wife was divorcing him - he is devastated.  A close friend of mine refuses to help himself, and his losses will be great.  They already have been.  Just as people “left” me to deal with my messes, I have to leave some of my friends to deal with theirs if their behavior makes me unhealthy.  The other end of the spectrum also makes it unimportant:  my good friends have been out in force, buying half price wine, sitting on warm patios with me, giving me incredible and priceless advice.  They run with me, eat with me, and occasionally let me help them too.  My family shows up, buys bread when I forget it until the kids are in bed.  Sometimes I’m 100% on with the motherhood stuff - other times I’m less than 75%.  I’ve gotten better at asking for help, and not raking myself over the coals when I do ask for it. 

So yeah, the living room is done - my whole house is, really - and it feels good to post things that had a finite start and a finite end.  Tomorrow marks the start of something new as well.  I’m finding that scaring myself just a little bit, or pushing my comfort zone, is actually quite liberating. 

Before:

Now:

(Thora loves the room - big windows and a chair she shouldn’t be on to watch from)

I’ve been dreading posting pictures of the kitchen because there’s only so much you can do with a kitchen that really, really needs a sledgehammer as opposed to a can of paint.  I didn’t even bother to paint it - just didn’t seem like anything would help.  Looking at the pictures I took, it doesn’t look that bad.  You can’t see the stained weird beige countertops or the kitchen sink that is permanently stained and chipped.  The oven, affectionally called “EZ Bake” because of its diminutive size, works great but looks like something from the Jetsons.  The stovetop is cool in a retro way but takes up tons of space.  Whoever decided to add cabinetry to the side of the kitchen had the right idea but not enough money to buy matching ones, so it looks like a Pinto you see driving down the road, farting smoke from the tailpipe, one red door and one primed trunk.  My kitchen is a Pinto.  Yep, I said it. 

Before:

After.  Not a fan of clutter.  At all.  Though it’s hard not to have a very small kitchen look uncluttered.  I did the best I could, and succeeded to some extent due to Nicole’s awesome suggestion to move this bizarre bar thingy stored in the family room into the kitchen. It doubles as a bookshelf, margarita glass holder, coffee maker and microwave stand.  In honor of Nicole’s great idea, I have their framed housewarming gift (a picture of Nicole and Dan) on top of the microwave. 

I had a hard time with the family room.  Most of it was mental, because that is the room the camel crickets loved.  When I first moved in, I couldn’t walk in there without having them spring out of the corners.  I spent at least 30 minutes a day sucking them up trying to not simultaneously shriek/barf with the Dyson.  Because I had a creepy feeling every time I went in there, it took me awhile to clean it out and decorate. I finally pulled down the pheasant curtains and hardware, cleaned up the walls, hung pictures and draperies, and made sure all the cricket bodies had been removed. 

Before:

Once we moved the bar thingy (seen in the second picture) into the kitchen, the room really opened up. I decided to split it in half, and dedicated half the room to the girls and all of their stuff, and the other half to me.  I’ve been using it as a place to read and occasionally stare off into space.  The couch is also excellent for conversations and tears if you need to do a little crying. 

The laundry room was nothing special and still isn’t, but I did use the huge closet thingy as a pantry.  Not convenient in the slightest, but still allows me to buy in bulk.

Before:

And now:

I repurposed a clothing rack from a trade show into a drying rack:

That is all.  I am tired!  I’m also home.