...race number 2...

Hello All,

For the record, I'm totally not diggin' the cold snap that's happened lately. This past weekend was uber cold. Funk and I decided to take on a 5k trail run on Saturday, and it was nothing if not eventful. I'll try to tell the story through pictures (though I don't have any from after the race).

First off, it was really really cold on Saturday morning, like 40 degrees maybe. Poor Kenny was bundled up and had to wait in the cold while I ran, but I'm thankful he was there supporting me!Pre race...even with ski gloves he was still cold!


I had to twist tie the chip timer to my shoe. Note the bean box and super duper bag in the hatch of my car. I was in my "office". No really. I was.

Kathleen and I just before beginning the race...if you look behind us to the right, then you'll get a small picture of what the run was like. yes, it was muddy :)

**Here is where I run out of good pictures...so the rest of the story is a narrative***

Funk and I stayed together for most of the run, but the trail was muddy and narrow so about halfway through we separated a bit. I kept running and the trail got really muddy. My goal going into the run was to run the whole way, no walking, but the never ending puddle of a trail got in my way. Eventually I gave up avoiding the puddles and just started running through them...my shoes are no longer white, they're beige due to the mud :) Each time I slow down to cross a puddle I look back to see if I see Funk....no Funky...I crossed the finish line in about 45 minutes (and considering I had to deal with the mud I'm proud of my time). Kenny's there waiting with the camera at the finish line and as soon as they cut off my chip timer he tells me Kathleen rolled her ankle :(

Funky had rolled her ankle over the Christmas holiday and was able to run on it for the EP5k but when I saw it after the race it was HUGE!! Luckily for Funky she's a student in Eastern medicine, so I'm sure she'll have lots of resources to help her ankle feel better. I told her she could practice on me, but I'm not sure what she'll do...

Anywhoble:

Kenny and I walked back to the cars with Ms. Funk and we parted ways....but not without a plan for a new run! I heard about the BlueBell 5k in Brenham in April...they have a 10k race too and the reward for finishing.....(drumroll if you please)

ALL THE BLUEBELL ICE CREAM YOU CAN EAT!!!!

Ice cream after a run, totally worth it!

Here's to muddy trails, dedicated friends and boyfriends, ice cream and running!

Blessings to you!

My first 5K: Complete!

Hello All!

I am slacking on blogging...life unfortunately takes priority these days (work has been nuts!). But I wanted to let you all know that I successfully completed my first 5K! and by successfully I mean completed (I did walk for about a block after mile 2). Mama Funk and Mama Bridgeman joined forces to document the event and I thought I'd share some of the pictures my mom took this morning.

Mom and I left cypress at 5 (yes in the morning) and got downtown around 5:30 (and found a sweet free parking place!) We met up with Kathleen and Mama Funk a little later and the documentation began: pre-race pose :)

pre-race in the early morning light (still just a little after 7 at this point)

This one was in the "corral"....there were around 4,600 participants in the 5k alone! ....mom could only get a picture through the bars lol. They were playing awesome music to pump us up while we waited like the temptations and Sir Elton John (we were crocodile rockin')

So then we were off at 7:32 in the morning jogging through down town houston. I did not realize how much energy would be expended by weaving between the slower runners/walkers. I had a great time though and it was a perfect morning to run!

As we were finishing the first and speediest of the half-marathoners (who started at 7am) began to finish. Can you imagine running 13.1 miles in an hour or so?

Kathleen and I both finished under the 40 minute mark!! My official "chip time" (the orange tag on my shoe) was 35:22. I am super proud of that time :)

When we reunited with the Mama's the photography began again:

And this was our post-race victory pose (gatorade and cookies included)

I had so much fun getting ready for and participating in this with Kathleen, we're planning on participating in a half-marathon sometime in the fall.

The puppies (Jack and Ellie) were left at my apartment and are usually able to stay out of trouble. Apparently they got bored this morning, and as we entered my apartment my mother and I doubled over laughing when we saw my living room:


Ellie and Jack had decided to take all my magazines from under the coffee table and shred them all over the carpet. It was too funny for me to be mad!


All in all, today was a great day, and I've had great support getting to this point. I can't wait to do it again! Now it's time for barbecue, a good movie, and some Kenny-time :)

Here's to 5K's, the mamarazzi, good friends, good food, rambunctious puppies, and relaxing weekends!

Blessings to you today!

Hello all!

It's been a minute since I blogged last (to borrow one of my favorite phrases from my dear friend BG). Lots of exciting things going on in Bridge-land over here, and if you're a fb friend you know some of the more obvious ones. :)

One you may not be up to speed on is my quest for a house. Yep that's right, a house. After a conversation with my dear friend Alicia I realized that it would really be a smart financial decision to look into buying instead of renting for another year. So look I did, and I found a couple that I liked. My first day of house hunting I found one house and put an offer on it, but I'm a back-up offer, and I don't like being a consolation prize. So with my mom and Matt in tow we went hunting again on Saturday and found another one that I really like, it's a HUD foreclosure-which means that the government owns it and putting an offer on it is more like bidding on it and the property goes to the highest bidder...but "owner occupants" (that's me) get first dibs over "investors" (folk who just want to rent out the house). That bid goes in tonight, so keep your fingers crossed that something works out :)

Last time I posted I mentioned running a 5k in January and I'm still training for that, but I'm hitting mental blocks lately. Anyone have tips for breaking through the metaphorical brick wall that's currently standing in my way?

Hooray for christmas break! I'm excited to have 2 weeks to do absolutely nothing (except fun stuff) and let my brain rest. My last week or so of work was CRAZY!! Anywho, I'm off to C-town tomorrow for a few days...my family is celebrating christmas on the 26th since Matt is incredibly lucky...

For those who don't know, my brother, Matt is in the band at SMU and this year SMU is playing in the Hawaii Bowl...yup my brother is currently in Hawaii enjoying the sun and spending 5 days there with his college buddies (not to mention his great gf). So Matt gets back from the extreme pacific on Christmas day and is driving back to Corpus that afternoon...and in the interest of his sleep as well as a happy christmas we're delaying the celebration a day. Ah well, the things we do for our siblings right?

Here's to new ventures, new adventures, lucky siblings, and a Merry CHRISTmas to you all!

Flat Stanley runs a 5k!?

Who is Flat Stanley you ask? Well I (with the help of wikipedia) will tell you.
The Flat Stanley project stems from a book about a little boy named Stanley who accidentally gets flattened when a bulletin board falls off his bedroom wall and squishes him. Stanley discovers that he can sneak into locked rooms, fly like a kite, and do all sorts of fun things in his newly flattened state. His favorite thing to do is be mailed to friends and go on trips!

So the premise of the project is that each student creates a "stanley" and a journal for stanley. They then send Stanley to various addresses that were collected and the people who receive Stanley journal about the adventures that they have and then mail Stanley back to the sender. Stanley's done lots of cool things like:
meeting "Dubya"

Hang out with Condi
And coolest of all: Ride a Motorcycle!!


So the kids at my favorite elementary school are participating in their very own Flat Stanley project and I can't wait to see what kind of adventures Stanley goes on!! My Special Ed chair recruited me for some more addresses/places for Stanley to go, so some of my favorite people will get to meet Stanley, and hopefully one day You will meet Stanley too!!


In other news, I had dinner with my friend Kathleen "Funky" Funk yesterday at an amazing Thai restaurant in Montrose. While dining on delectable Asian cuisine, Funky and I decided to become running buddies just in time to register for the EP5K associated with the Chevron Houston Marathon!!


That means that for the next 8 weeks I will be doing my darndest to become a runner so that I can successfully complete the race! Major props to Nicki for taking the lead on this admirable task! I am so excited to have someone to do this with and to share it with you all so that I can have accountability too!! I'll do my best to keep you guys posted on my progress. I'm using the "couch potato to 5k" application I put on my iPhone and so far so good...but we'll see how I do at the end of the program :)

Here's to adventures, friends, accountability partners, random 5K races, and most of all Flat Stanley!

Blessings to you today!

I'm still here...I promise

When people ask you if you're still blogging, I guess that means you haven't blogged in a while right?

I find myself reluctant to blog lately, and I'm not quite sure why.

Perhaps I haven't had the motivation to express myself, because I'm sure I've had the inspiration. I frequently have moments in my day where I think "hm...I could blog about this later" but for some reason those thoughts never go from my brain to my homunculus to my fingers to my keyboard and finally to you.

I think sometimes I feel like my life isn't super interesting so I have to have these profound and thought-filled blog entries, but I realize that that is not the case.

My life is becoming more than the "tales of a disgruntled student". To borrow a phrase from my childhood: I've gotten a life...an adult life...holy cow ya'll I'm grown up...

I'm still in the process of finding my first grown up church home. I don't have my parents to place me somewhere, I don't have friends to go with, and I don't have a significant other to guide my decisions. It's a completely on-my-own grown up decision. Maybe that's why I'm having such a hard time settling on a church.
I've found a couple that I like, one is close to my house here in Cypress, the pastor is engaging and I'm sure there are ways I could get involved, but I don't feel that call to be involved in that church. The other is in Houston and is a ginormous church, but they have 20-30yr old bible studies which would provide a great place to plug in and meet people. The pastor is engaging, I feel like the message is pure but the Sunday I planned to go back to visit a bible study and go to service again I found myself not wanting to drive the 25 minutes into town to go. This church-seeking goldilocks(sorta) needs to find a church that fits just right...hopefully sooner rather than later.

In other news...Jeremy, Joy and my favorite nephew Dan-o are coming to Houston next week!! I can't wait to see them for our early thanksgiving celebration. Why celebrate early you ask? well I'll tell you:
1) My younger brother has a football game with SMU the Saturday after thanksgiving, ergo it's silly for him to drive 7 hours for a day and drive 7 hours back.
2) My dear friend (and blog reader) Peyton is FINALLY getting married the day after thanksgiving. Peytong, I know my finally is miniscule to the finally you'll be feeling as soon as you guys say your vows :) So it would be silly for me to drive home to corpus, then to mcallen (where Joy's family hosts thanksgiving) and then back to houston.

The logical choice of course was to have turkey day at my house :) i'm super excited about it, I've got my list of things to buy, my cleaning list and I'm ready to play Betty Crocker for a day.

Completely un-related topic and just cause I love my sister-in-law and brother for putting my nephew in this for halloween: I give you Danny's first halloween costume:
Genius no?

So here's to growing up, getting a life, all things thanksgiving, and family visits!

Blessings to you!