Man, what a weekend. Friday, Ash and I got A LOT done. We’re having a big Christmas party this coming Friday so we spent the afternoon taking down these LED lights that we’d previously strung all around and over our pool about 2 years ago. We then restrung them to just go around the perimeter. This was not a difficult task but a necessary one. We’re having trees removed in a few weeks and the guy wire for one of the support poles is anchored to one of them. So we had to remove some of the strands to take weight off the overall structure. ANYWHO, we did that while also brewing an Irish red ale. Electric brewing allows for periods of time where the thing is going but you don’t have to do anything so you can multitask.

So that evening, we got all that done, dropped my oldest off at his friend’s house, then went to Walmart for the last few things we needed to finish the light project. It was a long day! And heading into the evening, the true panic set in for me: I registered myself for the 5 mile challenge, which is a race my husband and boys have done many times but I never have. Well, this time it was him, my daughter and myself. But had I run 5 miles? Not in, like, 3 years. But I did do 4 last weekend so I figured, why the heck not? Well, I did panic and was worried I’d hit an hour at minimum. BUT, it was an excellent run. I felt really strong for the first half but did drop my pace to about 11 min mile in he second half. At mile 4 there is no kidding big-ass hill that the race is famous for and yeah, it was no joke. I was dying! BUT, I finished in just under 54 minutes so I was really pleased with myself. It’s a small race, maybe 140 people total, but both Ash and I placed third in our age divisions.

We basically had no downtime after the run; we took Isaac to soccer on the way back, went home to shower went back for him, then went to lunch. (I ate a huge burger!) When we got home, I picked up my oldest on then went right across the street to my daughter’s friend’s birthday party, where we hung out and drank beer until 8. I was pretty DONE by then; tired, sore. I was asleep in no time.

Woke Sunday feeling just fine and got to work cleaning. Our house was quite messy and with the party looming, now’s as good a time as any. After that, I got laundry going, ordered pizza, ran a couple errands, then it was football all day. This week, I don’t have to go to campus anymore because it’s the end of the semester for the community college so I can really catch up!

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Christmas music? OK, can do. I tend to pick the same songs each year but I like certain ones more than others. These fit the bill in most ways: