Sunday, November 29, 2009

Let's Catch Up

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! Since my last swine flu/pneumonia update, I'm pleased to announce that I'm feeling better and our house is germ-free. I spent the week before Thanksgiving in bed and started feeling better just in time for an extended holiday break. From my posts showing our Thanksgiving pies and other food, you could see that I spent some time last week cooking.

This year I put my foot down and somewhat demanded that Chad and I pick only one Thanksgiving dinner to eat. Does that sound strange to you? To explain, let me clarify that for as long as I can remember, I have eaten at least two Thanksgiving dinners (splitting time with two sides of the family). Since my first Thanksgiving with Chad five years ago, there have been holidays where we have eaten a meal on Wednesday, followed by three (yes, THREE!!!) Thanksgiving dinners with the rest of our family units. Having two sets of divorced parents will do that. I had been looking forward to this year for a while - I offered to have family here at the house - Chad's Mom, Jim, and my mom had the main meal with us, followed by Chad's Dad and Marta joining us all for dessert. Choosing to have one meal like this of course meant that we missed out on seeing some family this year on the big day, but we have since gotten to see my Dad and Rose for some Firebowl Cafe and pie at our house.

We have been somewhat productive at our house over the last few weeks as well. A cleaning service (thanks Ruth Anne!) came to the house last Tuesday and thoroughly cleaned our main living areas and we have been able to keep up the tidiness since then. We're expecting to get new carpet installed next Thursday, so we have been busy sorting through our 'box room' to try to clean out the clutter. We also decided that this is the best time to install tile in our upstairs bathroom, so we are having that done on Monday. I'm thrilled to see how our house will look next weekend...by then we will also be able to put up our Christmas tree and have our house looking ready for the holidays.

Have I been running? Not really. Pneumonia kind of makes it impossible. I ran Sunday, Nov 15, then got sick. I didn't run again until Thanksgiving morning for the Turkey Trot. That five mile route with hills was just enough for me to think mid-race "What the hell was I thinking making this my first run back?" I ran well considering my lungs were not happy having to breathe heavily again. My plan was to take it nice and easy and only run faster if I felt okay. My first mile was about 9:00 and I progressively got faster to about a 7:40 pace at the end. My overall time was decent for a 'fun run' as my overall pace was 8:12. It was great seeing folks out there, Rogue friends, a high school friend, and a couple of old running friends. My leg hurt afterwards, but I was able to run three miles yesterday with a very minimal amount of soreness.

Hmm...what else? There are going to be some big changes at the Jones house. Before you go expecting a baby announcement, let me say no. I have actually had some of my ongoing female issues come back (since September) and have had some gyn exams done - one of which deserves a tmi post. I'll wait for now to write that one, but it is a lovely story. No, the big story in our family is that Chad is in the position to branch out on his own and start his own construction business. He'll likely start talking about it with those of you who know him, but he has filed the necessary paperwork and has been approved by the state with his name and stuff. It is weird to think that we'll both be working out of a home office sometime in the next few months. I'm so proud and excited for him.

That's about it. I would apologize for the time between posts, but I do my best. Hope to keep you all up with everything else as this busy month of December begins.

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