Smile and Let Your Hair Down...

It will be two years in March...and it still seems like yesterday when we spent those last few months with Grandma.  They were probably the most hard moments we had ever faced as a family...my Mom, Sister and I.  When those feelings of extreme missing hit me, I turn to one thing...pictures.  I head to the basement and pick a box and then let the old photos remind me of all the fun we had with Grandma (and Grandpa too).  Grandma's Birthday was on Sunday...so I headed to the basement to see if I could find a picture that I hadn't remembered seeing before.  I did.  This one really captures the perfect smile of my Grandma...she was always cheerful and happy.  She always took good care of me.  And she always told me that there were two things that I needed to work on...1) smiling more and 2) wearing my hair down.

The good news...I have been working diligently on both.  Despite my name, I was pretty serious as a kid and as a teen and as a young adult too.  I'm growing into being more carefree and working on smiling more.  I have also spent the majority of my life wearing my hair back too...in a ponytail or a bun.  I'm making progress on there too...I actually wear my hair down more days of the week than I do up.  Although, I do keep a hairband at my desk at work...I just think better when it is pulled away from my face.  I know Grandma would be okay with that...it is still down...technically...and being productive at work makes me smile more...so one supports the other.  I think she would be happy at the progress.

I miss her so much...her bravery...her style...her heart...her laugh...her cooking...her smile...her everything.

I was a Vera Girl...now I am a UA Girl...

I have written before about my obsession with Vera Bradley and the many, many purchases of floral patterns of bags, wallets, pens, pencils, stationary, journals, and laptop bags.  Just scope this out to see - Vera Addiction.  I have also written about how my love of Under Armour continues to grow...so much so that I have created a new label for my blog - UA Girl.  There is something about new clothes and shoes for the gym that increase your motivation for getting there and do hard work.  The right clothes foster the right movements.

As miles continue to increase on my long duration workouts (I am up to 8 miles), so does the need to prepare for when I need to hit the streets and trails...as Spring nears.  This of course, will require more Under Armour.  And as the seasons shift, one knows that the inventory starts to shift as well.  So a trip to the outlets no longer means new purses or outfits for work or killer steals on pretty shoes...nope...it means visiting the UA Factory to restock on the essentials and some fun things too.  My favorite of the day was finding this lovely UA Storm Rivarly Jacket.  Not only is this going to keep me warm (and dry) once I head out in another month or so for outside duration training...but also at DC United Games...just about a month away from the home opener at RFK...so see...this was a good investment.  A perfectly justifiable purchase...

A nice little chat...

On the day I decided to commit to doing a half marathon and full marathon, I had a good conversation with my Grandpa on the drive into work.  It is always how I talk with him now...while I am in the car.  It was one of things we had in common...our love of cars and driving.  We would always have our best chats when we would go out for a drive, clean/polish cars, and test drive cars as well.  It was one of our things.  I miss it.  I miss him.  Every Single Day.

                                                                         
My Grandpa worked hard for many, many years...and since most of his work was physical in nature, he was always fit.  He was careful about fueling himself with the best possible food and rarely over indulged.  He respected the balance required.  When I was mulling over the idea it occurred to me that I have never had that same respect.  The balance.  The discipline.  The more I thought about it, the more I thought about how transforming my eating and increasing my physical activity would bring me closer to him.

For my family, the mighty owl is our symbol for Grandpa.  I have written about it before...but here was the first time I wrote about it...On the Wire He Sits. So my charm bracelet is complete now...I have added an Owl charm.  I really do have all I need now.  I am charmed.  I am lucky.  I have all that I need to go about doing this work.

In my reading, I made several notes in my journal about a few lines that have really struck a cord with me from the book - Marathoning for Mortals by John "The Penguin" Bingham and Jenny Hadfield..  There are two lines that I replay in my mind over and over like a mantra - "You have to take whatever talent you have, train as well as you can, and then go out and see what happens" (pg. 15) and  "Sometimes its simply knowing that we put it all together and give it our best shot " (pg. 15).  These two lines sum up not only my thoughts about 13.1 and 26.2 miles...but pretty much everything you tackle in life.  Take what you have, look around, and then go for it.

Recognizing the Obstacles...

The vision of walking a half marathon and marathon was not an overnight decision.  I have been thinking about it for a long while, but fear stood in my way.  I am a hard worker, but I have never worked hard at tackling my Type 1 Diabetes.  I know, I know...it is true.  Even with all of my transformations over the past year and a half...the T1 Diabetes stuff was not the focus.  Now it has to be.  I can't ignore it if I want this whole finishing a half marathon and marathon thing to happen.  It will happen.  I can visualize little else these days. 

As I was waiting to see my endocrinologist yesterday, I snapped this picture.  I am really enjoying all of the reading and research I am doing on Marathons.  I'm really loving this book...I mean it has "joy" in the tag line...so it must be kismet right?  The more I look at it...the more it really captures the elements of what I need to do.  The book is my goal...but the two things also captured are the other obstacles that want to stand in my way.  Work (the blackberry).  Type 1 Diabetes (the spiral notebook with my doctor/nutritionist notes in it).   I am going to have to keep these two things in balance to get what I want.  I have never had to do that before.  This really is a whole new everything.