Shaken Faith

I don't consider myself to be a deeply religious person. I was raised in the Episcopal Church and I occasionally enjoy returning for a service or two, but I don't affiliate with any one religion. That is not to say that I'm not spiritual though and it offends me when people think I'm not. However, my beliefs are things that I normally tend to keep to myself. It's how I am.

Sometimes though things happen that shake the faith that I do have. Like today when I logged on to Facebook only to discover that yet again, the worst had happened. I knew yesterday a dear friend was taking her dog into the vet. The news unfortunately was the worst and yet again, loving owners were forced to make the excruciatingly humane decision to spare their beloved dog from the pain any longer. Through pictures she shared his last day, a run in the rain and a drive through McDonald's. Thank goodness for fast food for the last supper. Marley too enjoyed a hamburger on his way to the rainbow bridge.

Less than a month ago another dear friend had to say goodbye to her boy. Rogue hasn't even been gone two months yet.

Three dogs in less than two months. Three families heartbroken. It shakes my faith sometimes and so I turn to the sky and I ask "why?" I know I will receive no answer that is acceptable, that it is not my information to know. I know there are more homeless pets down here and puppies yet to be born to fill in the family gaps. I know that there could never be enough homes for them all. I understand all that. But right now, running in the rain, I just feel cold and empty. I am not ready to offer my home, my heart to one of those in need. Selfish, yes, but so is the call to take the dogs back home again before we are ready to see them go. Time will heal us all, I know it will. It's just too fresh and with every loss of another beloved pet, the painful reminder resurfaces the wound and shakes the faith yet again.

Run free dear friends. Run free.

Spring Break!

It's finally here! Spring Break 2012. We have packed a bunch of fun stuff into it already starting off bright and early Saturday morning with a 10k. It was a benefit run for a friend's wife suffering from Cancer. We woke up to sunshine and it was a pretty amazing day. Sarah, Sean, Madeleine, Gram and I all headed over with everyone participating. The kids ran while Gram played photographer. Madeleine started out with a 1K kids run which she rocked at! It started out with an uphill trail route where she started picking off the competition passing them up the hill. ROCK STAR! Next came the 10K! That's 6.2 miles for those of you who like me struggled with the HS competencies! The turn out was fantastic. Melinda and I ran (Go Team Tortoise) the whole time together and Sarah ran almost the first half with us before she gave up our pokey pace and headed on her own. My friend Erin kicked my ass pushing her one year old in a stroller. Damn, I have got to start doing some speed work. Or get myself a one year old to push around, which is less likely. It was a really cool event, even if I was exhausted the rest of the day, and a great way to kick off the break.

Yesterday Sean's Dad and Crystal came to town and we spent the entire pouring down rain day tootling around, shopping at all their favorite places. We checked out Happy Trails, The Book Bin and then introduced them to both TJ's (Maxx and Trader Joe's) and then took them to Market of Choice. We went out to dinner and then headed back to our respective sleeping spots. I'm currently awaiting everyone waking (cause I don't sleep), so we can go for a hike and hit the OSU bookstore before they take off at lunchtime.

Which is when the best part of the scheduled events happen. We are getting outta dodge ourselves. Sarah found us a great (well according to the pictures, it could be like Summer Rental with John Candy from the 80s for all I know), house on the beach. Two days out of this Popsicle stand.

I'm gonna watch whales, walk on the beach, read a book for FUN, watch movies, play with the kids and not think about my life in the valley for at lease 48 hours.

I can hardly wait!

Snow Day!

On March 21! I know. What the heck? It's been snowing all day.

At least it's pretty!

Luck of the O'Ross

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Don't let the Christmas wreath on the house fool you. This really was taken this morning. Funny how I didn't even know it was still there. I wonder what else is on our porch.

This is Sean and I after completing the "Run to Get Lucky" this afternoon. Don't we look fantastic? You want my socks don't you? Well you can't have them, they are my lucky charm. Clearly we both got lucky cause we each finished 2nd in our age group. Sean was actually really fast! My luck was that no fast runners in my age group showed up today. Regardless, it was a blast and I'm sure we will run it again next year.

Now to sample the delicious offerings of downtown Corvallis at the spring wine walk. What better way to procrastinate my final paper due on Monday!

Cheers everyone!

The Bus Whisperer

Oh yeah you're jealous aren't you? Who gets a sweet ass nickname like that? Me! The girl who can locate not one bus but two! What's the big deal you say? Well, it is nearly impossible to get a bus scheduled in the spring because of field trips and spring sports. Which is why I need them. We now have two additional track meets scheduled for two dates in May.

Did I forget to mention the fact that I'm the middle school track coach this year? Um, yeah, more on that later. Anyway, I called the bus garage the day we got our notice and the guy that answered the phone laughed when I gave him my dates. He actually laughed. I asked if there was anyone else I could talk to and he said that he was the boss and therefore he knew the score and "it doesn't look good, there are no buses available!" He then said that I could try e-mailing the secretary but again repeated "it didn't look good." So I did. I talked really, really nice to her and I thanked her for her time before she even had looked at anything for me. Guess what? It turns out what they say about the secretaries and janitors having all the power is exactly right! I've always made it my policy to be friends with them anyway, but this just reinforces it for me! I have two buses scheduled for my middle school track team.

I am, the bus whisperer!

Healthy Weight?

Today I finally logged on and participated in my "voluntary" health screening required by our insurance company. It's only voluntary if you consider that not doing it costs you a minimum of $43 monthly surcharge.

The only required field we had to fill in was height, weight and waist circumference. How they can know if you're being honest about that is beyond me. There was about fifty other questions ranging from lifestyle to stress level, but I only answered the ones I felt seemed like they wouldn't be too incriminating.

I was especially intrigued by the "healthy weight" span I was allowed. For my height 5'4", I know right, I'm sure you thought I was much taller than that. Anyway, for my height I can be between 111-144 pounds and all are considered the "healthy" range. Seriously? That is a 33 pound spread. I don't know anyone who weighs 111 pounds that would still consider themselves healthy if they gained 33 pounds, unless they were pregnant. Being more in the upper range than the lower range I think that maybe I should up my 10 pound weight loss goal to say maybe 15 or 20 to get to the lower range. Crazy I tell you! I feel Cadburry Eggs and my beloved Peeps slipping out of my grasp this year.

This is stressing me out so much I better go back in and revise my answers on the "level of stress" category. I wonder what the healthy range is on that one. I can imagine it now "excessive sweating, hives and panic attacks" all in the healthy range. I'm sure I'd be just fine.

Maybe I should have just forked over the extra $.

Time

Today is a cut day from school. I should be sad about it, but I'm not. I've been feeling really overwhelmed lately and so for me, this extra day is the gift of time. Time is something that I'm finding is priceless and so while I don't get paid today, I don't mind at all.

So far with my extra time I've met friends for coffee, caught up on laundry,got myself completely current on school work and paid the bills for the month.

Really today was a small taste of summer. A tease actually because I can't wait. I'm so ready for summer this year. Too much stress has been piling up since my grad school starting last summer, the most challenging class ever and ultimately the loss of Rogue has me exhausted. If it was an option to call it a school year tomorrow, I would.

However, it isn't, so I'll be hanging on, one day at a time until Spring Break. It's been a tough, tough year. But like the flowers starting to poke their little heads up, I'm starting to imagine the sun on my face again. I'm so ready for a little light on my face and in my heart. Come on spring, bring it on.

Hope!

This is what greeted me this morning. As I headed out to my car I noticed the little purple heads poking through the dirt. My crocus have announced that Spring is coming.

About time. I couldn't be more pleased!

Get your jealous on!

Cause we are going to be sitting in the front row at the Prefontaine meet this year. No more nose bleeds for the The What Train team this year!

Come on, you're jealous..you know you are.