Date Night!

Remember last spring when Riley went on her first date with Daddy?  My goodness, that night was so emotional for me!  They were so stinking precious together.

Well, Riley for sure remembered that day and talked about her next princess ball often.  I was so thrilled when Amy forwarded the email to me with the new date for 2015.  Riley and Jarrod both were eager to head out again!

This time, we didn't have to go shopping for her special dress.  She already had her perfect dress in her dress up cabinet, thanks to a good friend's hand-me-downs.  We had a great time getting ready that afternoon, curling her hair and painting her nails.  I even let her wear a little lipstick which tickled her!

I mean, are you kidding me???  This sassy little thing is gorgeous and full of pizazz.  We are in for a lot of trouble with her teen years if this keeps up!

 She was so happy to see her Daddy walk in after work with a special corsage for her.  He's everything in her eyes and she just couldn't wait to dance with her Prince Charming.

We all piled in the van and Gavin and I dropped Riley and her date off at the princess ball where they ate dinner, played basketball, colored, did their nails, and of course, danced the night away!  She is obsessed with the idea of a disco ball currently, so she was excited to hit the dance floor and bust a move.

Meanwhile, Gavin and I headed across the parking lot for our special date night!

I had plans to take him to a local Lego place, but despite calling for information about their event that Friday night, we showed up to a very confused employee who knew nothing about such activities.  Since we had planned to have the pizza they were ordering for dinner (that she also knew nothing about!) we headed down the way to eat at Subway so she could make some calls and figure out what exactly was going on.

When we got back, she had pulled materials for the event and we spent the next hour making a blow kart, paper helicopter, and designing a roller coaster for a marble.  He was so incredibly quiet while we were there, but as soon as we got in the car, he rambled about how cool it was so I'm guessing he liked it.  It was really neat to watch his gears turn in his head as he tried to figure out what to do to make his creations work better. 

It was time to head over and pick up the rest of the family from their date, but as we pulled up, Jarrod texted me that they had finally found Addison so Riley was dancing with her.  Gavin and I decided to pop in and check out their dance, and I snapped this quick pic of the girls. 

 It didn't last long, though...just after I took this, Riley came up and said, 'Mommy, I'm tired.'  The princess was worn out and ready for some beauty sleep!  We headed home and my date, the princess and her Prince Charming all crashed pretty quickly.  Busy date night!

8 Posts and other Goal Updates

One of my big goals was to blog more in 2015.  8 posts so far?  I'm not sure I'd call that a success, but I guess it's better than nothing.  Part of blogging more would mean that I either a) take my camera out of the closet and actually use it, which I haven't in months! or b) start transferring my iPhone pics and videos more frequently.  I know the family reading this really wants to see the pictures, huh? :)

I thought I'd take a few minutes to check in with my goals for the year.  I have four main goals and a bucket list of twelve items.

Goal #1 - Get back to blogging....and I'm making an effort, can you tell?  I'm actually thinking about starting another blog, too.  More on that another time, though.

Goal #2 - Budgeting and Saving - this one is going well!  I do our weekly budget, I have my cash savings envelopes that are getting filled and Jarrod's bonus will pay off the credit cards we want to get paid off so we'll be back to saving more.  Woohoo!
Goal #3 - Cook with the kids more - I'm kinda iffy on this one.  We've cooked together, and both kids have actually come in and asked to help with dinner on their own once, but I think we could do better.

Goal #4 - Healthy role model/gentler parent - chugging along!  They see me running and are cheering me on as I prepare for this half marathon.  We have had a few rough weeks with a lot of sibling fights and not listening but I'm really trying to remind myself to take that three second pause before reacting.

And for my bucket list...

1. Make a DVD of my Flip/iPhone videos - Haven't started

2. Overhaul craft closet - Worked on it, but still have more to do

3. Complete a half marathon - Will be checking this off in 18 days

4. Take a weekend road trip to a new place - Nothing planned yet

5. Print another blog book - Plan to order one with the next coupon code

6. Grow Team AIM to at least 15 coaches - welcomed one coach

7. Make an effort to have two dates with Jarrod (outside the home!) - Plan to surprise him with a lunch date soon

8. Back up all my photos and create a system for organizing them - Got all photos onto the external hard drive, but need to work on old laptop

9. Read 10 books (and actually keep track!) - three books done!

10. Donate my hair to Locks of Love - It's growing....still needs to get a little longer

11. Make a recipe binder/notebook - Haven't started

12. Put cash into my savings envelopes every week, no matter how small - success so far!

I hope you're all doing well in 2015, too.

24 Days

Holy cow.  I knew the half marathon was later this month.  We've been talking about that.  But, when I get an email and the subject line is 'Half Marathon - 24 Days Out' the anxiety hits.  Winter weather came late here, and with the abundance of snow days on top of sick kids, I'm so behind.  I've missed many training runs, and my longest run has only been 8 miles.  I have a lot of work to do.

I'm so worried that my legs are going to buckle under me while I'm running.  I'm worried about how my knees are going to handle the run because of some discomfort I've been having.  I'm worried about making it the entire run.  I'm worried about it taking forevvvver for me to finish. 

But then, when I'm out there running, I imagine how it will feel to cross that finish line.  I know in the moment, I won't care how long it takes me.  I know there will be this overwhelming push to keep going from the crowd and other runners.  And I know there will likely be tears.

So, please....let today and tomorrow be our last winter weather occurrences and let the weather take a turn for the better.  I will be spending the next three weeks running.  And running some more.  And the next three weekends running long runs, listening to podcasts, and logging the miles that will help me get to 13.1.  Thirteen point one.  What an accomplishment that will be!