Favorites from 2014

I hope to tell you the story of these roses next week.  They marked a happy occasion for me this past year and are one of 2014's photos and stories that didn't make the blog.  Next week, I hope.  ♥

The year ends with the wing chair re-do still in-progress.  I'm still looking for fabric for the seat cover and back. 

I mentioned in February that my older brother's "fortieth birthday fudge" arrived broken into pieces and that I was disappointed but was not going to beat myself up about it, but alas, I couldn't resist making a new batch for him later that month.  I left it at my parents' house for him during a visit home along with another gift and a hand-painted deer ornament.  Forty is a big deal; it was worth a second batch of Grandma's fudge.  ♥

My new camera brought immeasurable joy to my days this year.  The Neil Gaiman quote I opened a January post with--"I hope that in the year to come, you make mistakes.  Because if you are making mistakes, you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world"--has come to mind so many times this year, the quote itself has felt like a gift.  I remember my grandfather telling me that, "People who don't make mistakes don't make anything" at a time when I needed to hear exactly that, and to hear this echo of his words in the Gaiman quote has been a blessing to me.  That I now have a real camera to take with me on my walks is just wonderfully fun for me.  The Mourning Dove below was perched on a fence-post as I returned from a walk this summer--

--and I never could have taken a picture with detail like that with the camera on my old flip-phone.  You understand my joy.  :)

I mentioned at the end of 2013 that one of my goals for 2014 was to be more organized and thoughtful with my gift-wrapping like my dear aunt Laurie always is.  I put more thought into my gift-wrapping, but I didn't end the year any more organized with it.  Mom had predicted that it would be harder for us to be as  organized as Aunt Laurie is with these types of things since Aunt Laurie's entire attic serves as her space for craft supplies and gift wrap supplies and gifts-yet-to-be-given.  In a one-bedroom apartment, I don't have the same set-up, and after multiple organizational attempts this year, I've come to accept that I'll just have to do the best I can with what I have when it comes to this.  Maybe someday, I too will have a space I can devote to all things gift-giving-related.  Aunt Laurie didn't have her attic until she was in her forties, after all, so I still have time.  Dare to dream.  ;) 

Our Easter table this year was sweet--turquoise and peach with rabbits--but I never got a post up about it.  One of the local grocery stores had these adorable bunny truffles in its store-made candy department, so I bought two for our place-settings.  If I'm remembering right, the ears were nuts--probably almond slices.  Anyway, I want to make these sometime--maybe for Easter 2015.  They "made" the table. 

 The girl-holding-her-cat figurine above was my favorite birthday gift this year.  This was how it looked after I painted it to resemble me and Stuffed.  I'm not a kick-knack person, but this little figure's so special to me. 

One of the highlights of this past year--that also somehow didn't make it onto the blog--was a Color Run 5k race my friend Marylou and I ran/walked/laughed our way through this summer.  I told Marylou if she'd come up from West Virginia for it and drive us to the race city, I'd pay for the motel stay and race fees.  We made it work, and especially since it was the first time we'd seen each other since 2008, we had a blast.  

That I was still finding purple and green powder from the run in my hair two showers later was a small price to pay.  It was my first race of any length since 2011.  So fun!  ♥

In June, I got home in time to see my favorite rose, Louise Odier, in-bloom. 

I also got to see all three of my mom's sisters.  The above picture of Mom and Aunt Laurie is my all-time favorite of them together.  This is the one I framed as part of Aunt Laurie's birthday gift last week.  ♥ 

During that June visit home, my aunt Heidi showed me this old picture of me and my mom, and it has become one of my most-treasured possessions.  I'd never seen it before.  Love, love, love.  ♥

I took photos I loved too. 

And wrote at least one post this year that made me proud.  I'd wanted to write about Papa and Grandma's crayon can for years, and I finally found the words.  

A double rainbow appeared behind our apartment this summer.  ♥

 Stuffed was as dear as ever.  ♥  Each year--each day--with this sweet soul is a gift.  

I walked many miles in 2014. 

And lost pounds that I have regained and lost and regained since then, the story of my life, it seems, but the glory is in the attempt, etc. 

In 2014, I began donating books and book character toys/dolls to my former elementary school's library.  The new year's first donations will be delivered when the kids return to school after holiday break next week.  :)

Home continues to be cozy and colorful.  

Mr. V wrote back!  A long letter arrived in the mail just a few days after I'd mailed out his in October.  ♥  He is now in-touch with my younger brother via Facebook, which also delights me.  I got in touch with my kindergarten teacher and second grade teacher this year too, and they and I have emailed back and forth a few times, as well.  My heart glows just thinking about it. 

More walks.  A glorious autumn, the most colorful one I remember ever seeing. 

And a year that ends with memories of more gifts happily created and given--Emmet!  ♥--

--and happily received. 

2014 was challenging and beautiful and colorful and full of love.  May 2015 shine just as brightly, and may I be a better and braver person by its end.    I'm working on it, and the work continues.   Ah!  Happy new year to you all!  ♥

All the Way from Scratch

Monday's "Frank and Ernest" comic hit the spot and made me cackle. In an email yesterday, one of my aunts described herself as not being able to get out of her own way lately, and I thought, "You too?! That's it exactly." I often feel like God is bemusedly watching me and thinking, You know, you have everything you need, if you could just figure that out and get it together. That's likely the way it is for all of us, but I am feeling it pretty acutely lately.

In one example, I have completely blown off running since May's half marathon but decided to get back to it last week and ran a 5K over the weekend. Run-walk-run-walk-jog for ten seconds and walk again-run-walk-walk-walk. . . . I saw Mike waiting for me around the halfway point and berated him for not having thought to bring his phone to take a picture, since I was actually RUNNING that part of the race talked with him for a minute, and his first words were, "Are you the last one?" Apparently, he couldn't see any runners behind me. Correction, now that I know the race results: Apparently, there was only one runner behind me--I came in next-to-last in a race of 700-some people. And that's what I get for gaining back the weight I'd lost and taking off six months from running. (Don't call it a comeback. . . !)  This is when I join God in shaking my head and saying, Why didn't you just keep up with it?! Why must you always make things so hard for yourself? And I don't know, but I hope I at least get credit for trying and always coming back for more. Sigh.

First 5K Race Completed

I ran my first 5K yesterday. Only 3.1 miles, it was still the hardest physical thing I've ever done, and I'm so very proud of myself. I felt like an athlete yesterday for the first time. My only real goal going into the race was to run more of it than I walked, and I definitely did that: I ran more yesterday than I ever had before, and I ran longer before taking walking breaks than I usually do, as well. My hope for the race, based just on some vague sense of what was considered good time/pace-wise, was to finish in 40 minutes or under, and I just barely accomplished it: I finished in 39 minutes and 59 seconds.  :)  I hadn't realized that I'd actually achieved that when I crossed the finish-line, though, because the clock at the finish-line read 42 minutes or something like that when I ran across it, so I was a bit disappointed until last night when I looked up the results online and read my official chip-time. I had completely forgotten that the clock-time would be different from the chip-time since I'd had to follow the crowd awhile before even getting to the starting line after the gun (bell? whistle? starting sound, in any case) went off. So, as it turns out, I met my goal, after all! As soon as I saw that, I felt better and more encouraged about my performance, and soon after, I decided to run my next 5K in August. I've already put in a request to have that day off from work for it.

The race course had more hills than I'd expected--we were going uphill almost immediately after we crossed the starting line, it seemed--and I'd never before run on hills at all, so that made it extra challenging, but I'm sure I picked up speed going downhill each time, and I still felt pretty good overall. I got side stitches twice but massaged them out while I walked, and everything else felt fine. I gratefully grabbed two cups of water (and got a pleasant "You're welcome, Ma'am!" in response to my winded "Thank you!" at one stop) but didn't need more than that. I felt full enough on what I'd eaten (1 and 1/2 bananas, peanut butter on a slice of multi-grain bread, some soy milk, and my usual multi-vitamin), I felt rested, I felt strong. My feet/shoes felt good. I actually didn't even think about my shoes. The distance was perfect for me in terms of what I can handle running-wise at this point. When I saw the mile-marker for 2 miles or 2.1 miles or .2 miles or whatever it was, I just thought, "Yeah, the home stretch. I can totally do this for another mile. I'll be fine." Whenever I saw another slope coming, I'd mumble I-don't-even-remember-what under my breath--some curse-whine combination, and it was the same every time, but I don't remember now what I kept saying. (I'll probably be saying it before every hill in August, as well.) But it was do-able and felt really good. Perfect weather too: low 50s and not too windy, no rain, not humid, the sun wasn't blinding--just a really great day for a run.
 

The actual race started with a laugh for me, as when the gun sounded, we all tried to take off running but got only a few steps before the size of the crowd around us forced us all to stop and wait for it to thin out some. After those enthusiastic first few steps came to an abrupt halt, though, a young guy in the crowd yelled, "Okay! Great job, everybody!" and we all laughed. It was a funny way to start the race and the experience.
 

Another runner, who maybe didn't mean to come off the way she did, said something I found hurtful at the beginning of the race, though. In the first ten minutes or so before we could all spread out, a bunch of us had already had to stop to walk--I had never run up any kind of slope before, so almost right off the bat, I was winded and one of the walkers again--and this woman said in a rather nasty tone, "Why are all these people walking? Hello?! This is supposed to be a run!" She said it loudly enough for most everyone around her to hear, so I suppose she intended for us to hear her--and then do what? collapse under a tree off to the side of the street in shame so as to let her race by? It was rude and hurtful, as it was a 5K walk/run, for one thing, and because there were a number of us who were doing the best we could--and the best we ever had!--by running even as much (or as little, as I guess she saw it) as we were. In retrospect, I wish I'd said something to her. To hear her comment right at the start like that was discouraging and made me feel more self-conscious about how well I was (or was not) going to do. This was a 5K for charity, anyway, and a bunch of little kids and some parents running/walking with strollers were out there too, so it's not as though with our walking some of it we got in this woman's way and ruined her shot at Olympic glory or something. Ah well. It was the only downer moment of the day.

Near the end, around the 2.8 mile-marker, spectators along the sides of the street started calling out, "You're almost there! The finish-line is right around the corner!" and I thought, "Easy for you to say!" and I had to stop to walk again, but then I saw a man with a camera kneeling ahead of me, and I started running again, because no WAY was I going to have done all THIS only to have my picture taken while WALKING! It's funny what motivates us. So, even though I'd just stopped running to take a walk-break, I started running again, and I ran the rest of it right through the finish-line.

I was almost crying as I finished.  It was one of the greatest moments of my life. Two years ago when I weighed 55 more pounds than I do today, this run would have been impossible. I probably couldn't have even walked it with any ease. So, I was just so proud of myself. It was a great, great moment.

After I met up with Mike, we went out to breakfast and walked home together in the sunshine. It was just an all-around beautiful day--one that you want to remember forever.

A great first race experience.  Onward and upward!