Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I have been a terrible blogger lately.  When I have a few minutes to sit down I'm often too tired to look at my computer.  If I do then I don't seem to be able to organize my any of my thoughts at all.  

December is such a crazy month for my family, and especially now that two out of three of my little ones are in school.  And they aren't just in school; one is half day kinder while the other is full day 1st grade.  Our days are so choppy as a result of this that I never feel like I have a solid block of time to accomplish anything completely.  It's not just that their schedules are wacky, but it seems that school is now made up of nothing but projects, fund raisers, programs and parties.  At least from November through December.  ;) 

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel!  The kids are now on break and that means a full day of going NO WHERE!  Not only that, but Christmas is almost here and that means being able to breathe again!  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas!  It's just that there are so many things to do during the month of December that I don't have a lot of time to do things like catch up on other people's blogs or even update my own blog.  Honestly, I couldn't even stick to the running schedule (mainly because my running partner came down with strep and it threw us off once again. :( )   

But this morning I realized that the madness will be coming to an end in just one short week and we will be on to a new, better, more organized year!  So with that being said, I have promised myself I will resume my running and stick to it, begin editing my NaNo novel, catch up on everyone's blogs and get back to updating mine regularly!  

Until then, Merry Christmas to all of you and here's to a great New Year!!!!!

Finally!

I'm finally back to running!  It's amazing how out of shape you get after just a short time.  Five months ago I was running 16 miles at a time.  This morning I was feeling tired after just a 5k.  Now granted, I am always tired when I run in the morning since I haven't had the entire day to store up energy.  Also, I'm sure I could have continued to run further once my muscles were completely warm (it was frigid this morning,) but all the same I wasn't any where close to where I was five months ago.

So what happened?  Five months ago we went up to Northern California to watch my brother-in-law compete in his first ever full IronMan Triathlon.  It was AMAZING and extremely inspiring, but also extremely tiring.  We followed him around on razor scooters, by car and on foot for his 13 1/2 hour day with back packs full of supplies and nutrients and cameras to document the entire journey.  

Now, I'm not suggesting at all that his triathlon was the reason for my slacking off on the running.  It was just that we were so tired when we got back, and then the kids went back to school the week after we got back  and after that colds ensued.  I did continue to run here and there, but nothing like I was before the triathlon.

After a while coordinating running schedules became challenging, and my drive began to dwindle.  Then when my sister encouraged me to join her writing group and participate in NaNoWriMo I sort of put running on the back burner all together, mainly because writing seemed to suck the energy right out of me.  Not only that, but every time I had a spare minute I was anxious to get back to my novel.  By the way, did I mention that I actually finished NaNo an entire week early with roughly 52,000 words?!  YAY ME!!!!  Anyway, I digress!  After months of not running I  finally stopped making excuses and drug myself out of bed at 5 AM this morning, and I have been feeling amazing all day!  It's amazing what those endorphins can do for you.  I was even in a much better mood today!  

So what does this all mean?  Hopefully, I will continue to run two to four days a week in an effort to condition myself for a full marathon before the weather turns to warm.  Originally I was shooting for Surf City Huntington Beach, but I doubt I will be ready for 26.2 miles by February 7th.  Instead, I will shoot for the Ragnar Relay from April 15-16 (If you haven't heard of this, check it out - it was the funnest race I have ever done!)  And hopefully a full marathon as well, maybe the OC Marathon in May, (although the two may be way too close together!)

When I'm not running I will be working feverishly to edit my NaNo novel so I can take advantage of the free proof copy offered by CreateSpace, YAY!  And who knows, perhaps I will begin another novel as well, although there is the whole energy depletion from writing issue to consider! So now that you all know my plan of action for the next several months, what type of goals are you all trying to set and stick to?  Are any of you writers runners as well, and if so how do you juggle writing and running?  Also, for all those who competed in NaNo, how did you do?  Did you finish your novels?  Are you still working on them?  I would love to hear from you!

Our 16 Hour Writing Day

On Saturday my sister, Patricia over at Simplicity in Volumes, hosted a 16 hour writing day for our writing group consisting of her, myself, my BFF, Jen and our good friend Darci. We arrived at my sister's house at 6:30 in the morning for a delicious breakfast from Panera Bread complete with soufflé's, bagels, fresh fruit and warm pastries all provided by my wonderful brother-in-law, James.

After we filled our body with fuel for the brain we began our marathon of writing promptly at 7 AM. Did I mention this was all being streamed over the internet on my sister's blog? It didn't take long for me to realize that I am NOT very focused in the early morning. It wasn't just that the girls were so much fun, I really could not transfer the images in my head to words on the paper (or keyboard.) Every time I got stuck I would look for my creativity by laughing with the girls or rubbing the zucchini genie (I'll get to this in a moment) or pulling a prompt from the "Block Box" which was a box filled with writing prompts to assist us along if we were feeling stuck.

By lunch time I had written less than 1000 words, but I had already laughed more in those few hours than I think I have in a long time. I'm talking tears to the eyes kind of laughter. Two more girls from or regional NaNo group joined us at this time, and after refueling with tasty sandwiches, chips and dip, and an assortment of salads we were back to the grind.

I'll take this time to explain the zucchini genie. My sister and her husband had removed all of the summer vegetables from their garden to plant their winter veggies, leaving a lone zucchini. Since all of their winter vegetables are too small to produce veggies, they sometimes forget to check the garden, which has led to the growth of zucchini of unusual size. The zucchini in question was figured to weigh approximately ten pounds.

After refueling with lunch, we all had a burst of energy and managed to pump out some words while having fun. It turns out that this zucchini was very versatile. We were able to tone our arms, play hot potato, rub it for inspiration, and a few R-rated things we won't talk about (wink, wink). Even with all this fun everyone seemed to hit a brick wall around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The words stopped flowing and everyone looked like they might find a corner to pass out in. That's when James came to the rescue once again with Jamba Juice's with energy boosters for everyone. Woo Hoo! This seemed to do the trick for a while.

Throughout the rest of the day we played, laughed, and wrote. James provided one last, delicious meal from Wood Ranch and then we dwindled down to just three of us, Patty, me and Jen. It wasn't until after dinner that I finally found my creativity and began to really write. We were all determined to put in a decent word count before night's end so we wrote and wrote, and played some more, then wrote and wrote. In the end, we had all put in more than 4ooo words, some of us with over 6000 for the day (great job Jen!) It was an unbelievable experience!

The next day I felt exhausted and could barely write three hundred words, but it was worth every minute of it. Sometimes you just need to surround yourself with fun, crazy friends to push you along with your creativity. Even though we didn't attain the exact word counts we wanted, we all came away feeling refreshed and ready to conquer the rest of this 30-day journey. Thank you to Patty for leading us, hosting this and being a great mentor. Thanks to James for feeding us and entertaining us endlessly. Also, thanks to Quinn at seeing, dreaming…writing for chatting with us when we started and again at the end to see us to the finish line. You definitely kept us from giving up. And thanks to everyone else who checked in on us on the livestream to give us encouragement. Last, but not least thanks to all you girls in the writing group for making it an amazing day, I truly haven't laughed that hard in a long time!

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo is finally here and I am so excited to be participating.  I began writing at midnight on November 1st, pumping out my first 256 words.  By eight in the morning I was already feeling behind.  Some of my writing group had stayed up later and got their word count beyond 700, even 1000 words.  By noon, I just wanted to start writing.  This is easier said than done since I have a 2 year old, 5 year old and 6 year old who all need my attention in the middle of the day. 

Finally, at two o'clock, my nephew came over and the kids happily played outside together until my 6 year old got home from school at three o'clock.  I managed to get out another 400 or so words, which made me feel better until I could escape everyone and really put my mind to it. 

After dinner, I headed upstairs and locked myself away for the rest of the night (with a short break to read to the kids and tuck them in for the night) and ended my day with 2,135 words.  Not bad for a first day!  Now if only I can keep it up.

Today has already started out  much slower.  Kids are cranky and I have a miserable head cold slowing my thought process.  Later today I have to take my daughter to the doctor which is an hour away (we live in the middle of nowhere and I've refused to give up my Orange County doctors.) Somewhere in that mix I also need to find time to review the propositions and head to the poles to vote!!!!  And if all that isn't enough, at the end of my day I need to finish up some work that I do on the side so that it isn't looming and impeding my writing!  Phew...I'm tired just thinking about it all!

I am, however, determined not to fall behind!  I will find a way to squeeze in a little writing here and there today, and stay up later than I should to get in at least the minimum words for the day!  So here's to another productive day, wish me luck!

Dogwood's Fourth Annual Haunted House

Over the weekend, my sister and her husband, with the help of at least twelve families, put on the fourth annual Dogwood Court Haunted House.  It started the year after we moved out her when my sister and brother-in-law came to my husband and I and said that they wanted to build a haunted house in the middle of their cul-de-sac, and asked if we were in.  Ever since, it's been an event we all look forward to each year, especially the kids!

The first three years were great, but the majority of it was built by my sister, her husband, my husband and myself, which was exhausting.  Of course, I can't forget to mention the mounds of conflict that built up each year, coming to a head last year when we debated whether or not we should even go forward with the haunted house (of course we did, and it was awesome.) 


This year, however, was by far the best year yet!  Every year it gets a little bigger and a little scarier, but this year everyone out did themselves.  We started at 10 AM on Friday and finished after 8 PM putting up the frame, wrapping it with paper and starting on the decorating on the inside.  On Saturday we picked up where we left off at 9 AM to add the props and finish up the decorating.  This didn't conclude until 3 PM.  This gave us all just enough time to head home, put on our costumes and get back to begin the haunting. 
 

When we all met back up at 6 PM people were already showing up.  We let the families of the construction crew be the first to experience the haunt.  From then on we had a a steady flow of people that didn't stop until after 9 PM.  We estimated that all in all there were around 150 people, not a bad turn out at all! 

I think the best part of it all was the team work that went into building this year's haunted house.  Even though we were all working our butt's off, we laughed and joked and genuinely had a great time!  The team work exhibited reminded me so much of the Ragnar Relay Race I ran last year with a team of 12 people (which, if you are a runner, I highly recommend participating in but I digress.)  When everyone works toward a common goal that they are all so heavily vested in, it makes the end result that much more satisfying! 

Now that the haunted house is done, I'm looking forward to participating in BOO-FEST ON OCTOBER 28TH put on by Patty at Simplicity in Volumes and Quinn at seeing, dreaming...writing.  If you haven't signed up for this, don't miss it.  Go HERE to sign up and share your favorite ghost story! 

After BOO-FEST, I am eager for the kick off of NaNoWriMo.  I still can not believe that I have agreed to participate in this crazy contest, but honestly I can't wait to start pumping out those 50,000 words in 30 days.  Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to the November 1st kick off. 

From Runner to Writer

When I started this blog I was focused primarily on running.  Shortly after my brother-in-law completed his first full Iron Man Triathlon, my sister told me about a writing contest coming up in November called NaNoWriMo.  It stands for National Novel Writing Month and the goal is to pump out a 50,000 page book in just 30 days.  The best part is the only thing that matters is output, you're supposed to write as much as you can from November 1st to November 30th without editing.  In other words, quantity not quality here!

Although I am still running and trying to get back into training for my first full marathon (Surf City 2010), I couldn't pass up this challenge.  After all, I am always up for a good challenge.  I don't really consider myself a writer; sure I've written in journals all of my life and did plenty of business writing while I worked in Corporate America, but I never really tried to write creatively.  This was something my extremely talented little sister did, not me!  (Be sure to check out her blog  it's totally worth it!)  As it turns out, I really enjoy writing.  I may not have the greatest stories, but it allows me to escape into a world of my creation, where anything can happen at anytime, and I control it...for the most part! ;)

Now with that being said, Middle Distance Runners has transformed into a blog that encompasses my running challenges, my writing challenges, and any other challenge that come my way.  Now I'm a Middle Distance Runner who would like to share all of my life's little challenges and stories.  Hope you enjoy!