Pray for Boston

My heart is absolutely heavy right now. As a runner, I feel like someone has attacked my friends and my family. As a human being, I am just horrified.  Words cannot even put together how heavy my heart is and how I feel for the running community. I cannot watch the coverage without getting chills and fighting back tears. I am devastated for the runners and the volunteers and the supporters that I do not know and the lives that were lost and the lives that are forever changed.

When I was running A LOT and running marathons, Boston was a goal. A goal that in all reality was probably not reachable. Boston is a runner’s dream, it is the holy grail of marathons for many – runners work SO hard and train SO hard to be part of this race. They voice their opinions when the race sells out insanely fast and when they change the qualifications and make it harder to get in.  But all that is just so small and inconsequential right now. I HATE that finishes were overshadowed by tragedy. I HATE that many runners who trained long and hard had today stolen from them.  Today was supposed to be a day full of joy and pride and personal victories. Not this. As a past marathoner I can say with my whole heart: A marathon is a place for unity and perseverance. Not this. But I can tell you that it will unify us & we will persevere.

Just watching the running community checking in on each other makes me remember that though we may not know each other personally and we refer to each other by our blog names & twitter names until we meet in person at expos and pasta parties we are one big running family. It has been inspiring today amidst the heartbreak and shock and sadness to watch and read the compassion and thoughtfulness just pour our out. We are a family. We care about each other. We just want to know that we are all okay.

We run marathons to test the strength of the human body. What happens after today will show the strength of human will.

three things thursday

i enjoyed doing this last week, so i thought i would bring it back. :) i am absolutely exhausted.

1) this week i was in hazleton, pennsylvania on a sales call with a prospect. it was a great experience. i was with a vp and a svp and got to impress. but, i also realized that i need to read the wall street journal or something! our company’s svp is full of all sorts of fun trivia and facts. on monday he mentioned margaret thatcher dying. and i nodded my head saying that i had heard and almost followed it up with saying, “yeah and lily pulitzer died as well” ... um. hi. margaret and lily ... you cannot even compare the two. and i almost commented that Bethenny’s {from Bethenny Ever After} soon to be ex-husband is from Hazleton and that one of the Teen Mom’s is from the Lehigh Valley area. thank goodness i actually filtered myself.

::: random tangent ::: when on our way to hazleton from philly we totally drove by an amish house and i saw an amish lady in her farm picking veggies or something. now i just need to see a gypsy! =D

2) someone commented on my “happy homeownership” post about how they hope i am paying my mortgage since my standards are so high because of pinterest. or something along those lines – but there was for sure a comment about paying my mortgage. i wanted to respond, but i just deleted it. but for real: how is that any of their business?! and for the record, we are paying our mortgage thank you very much.

3) and this house will be the death of me. #moneypit hash tag, hash tag. we just got a new roof – thanks USAA. And now our AC went out and we’re faced with having to replace our HVAC units. We can officially kiss all our savings accounts and CDs and Bonds goodbye. I keep having to remind myself WHY we bought this house and that we love this house and it is a house we can raise our family in. But it is so hard to not be frustrated.  I never imagined that we would be draining all my savings accounts in 4 short months.

needless to say – tomorrow is Friday and I am looking forward to the weekend. Even though it will be full of HVAC people coming out and giving us quotes {since the one we got today was $12,000} on our repairs. But hey, it will be the weekend.

three things thursday {+1}

I have not done this fun little thing in awhile so why the heck not. plus, i don’t have a lot to say... but i feel like there are things going on in my {our} world. This is nothing exciting, but we got a new roof {whoop whoop, thanks USAA} and it is a beauty. However, the shutters don’t 100% match and Kyle now wants to get the shutters painted, but that has been tabled.  Our bank accounts need a breather.

{one}
I HAVE STARTED RUNNING AGAIN . THIS IS HUGE . SERIOUSLY
and it is getting easier and easier by the day. :) It was on my “new years goals” to become a runner again and it has taken a few months, but i am getting back into it. I even signed up for a 10k {that is far enough out that I can prep for it}. Now I just gotta find a handful of 5k races to run as prep.  I had forgotten how therapeutic it is to just run. ....if only I could figure out why my feet are falling asleep & if I could get over the calf pains.

current favorite running jams to add to your playlist:
1. Run This Town/Posthumus Mix – Jay-Z, Rihanna, & ES Posthumus
2. I Need Your Love – Ellie Goulding + Calvin Harris
3. I’m All Yours – Jay Sean + Pitbull

{two}
One of my “things to do before I am 30” is to spend a full month and not buy myself anything. Well. This month is the month. Is is partially because I have over indulged on ME and I need to get my checking out back to a comfortable level and another partially because I want to see if I can do it. And let me tell you.... it is HARD when you’re constantly getting emails from stores about free shipping & 50% off everything till 2:00 PM and so on and so forth. This is going to be a true test of willpower. I said no lunches either – but I broke down and had lunch with the girls from the office today. I just won’t make it a weekly habit. :)

{three}
Mulligan and Kennesaw’s food has been recalled {gasp} so when I went to get dog food from PetsMart today I had no idea what to do. I guess I assumed the bad food had been pulled & new good food would be stocked. Yeah. That is NOT how a recall works. Evidently, it will be months before Innova is on the  shelves again. So, I had no idea what to do – I couldn’t just buy anything and I couldn’t trust the PetsMart employees.  Kyle and I are crazy – WE have to research their food and make the decision what we’re going to feed them. Therefore, the only logical thing to do was to come back home with dog toys and treats.

{four}
work for me is starting to slow down and go back to a normal pace. I am off to Hazleton, PA next week for a sales meeting {and I am a little nervous} to hopefully gain the 2nd location of the onsite that I implemented in Birmingham.  I am having a little bit of turnover on the team that I manage, but when in the past I would be panicking this time i feel like it is a good thing {more on this later} and am excited for the changes that I am about to make. I have a new boss. Which I am good with & excited about. I am reporting into someone who I admire and respect and know that I can and will learn a lot from. Not that I didn’t admire, respect, or learn from my past boss – he was awesome too – i just think that me reporting into this other person is just better for my career development. And. I am also now the new and first ever corporate recruiter for my company. Which also is okay. And fingers crossed, I may have my 1st official placement as a corporate recruiter. {the headhunter bonuses are an added plus}