The Housing Saga: The Backstory

So in an effort to limit our stress let me share our current struggles. When I accepted my new position at this Children's Hospital hubby and I were not in good financial shape, sum it up of: 4 kids in 4 years, 2 layoffs, medical problems, paycuts and trying to limit how much student loan money we were accepting. Because if you didn't know, I was not a funded graduate student. I paid for my PhD with student loans. I don't regret it, but trying to live off our income and supplement with student loans does not make for a good financial situation, especially as your family grows. Thank God for our families to help us out!

But I digress, so we came house hunting, narrowed down our choices and went to put an offer on a home. Our agent then told us that we needed a pre-qualification letter for to place our offer. Well, we applied for a second mortgage and rightly so the mortgage company denied us. I can't blame them. So there we were about 4 weeks out from my start date and no where to live. Our agent found us this rental home, and we agreed to a 1 year lease. The house fits us, but it's not a great area or great school for our kids. In fact about 2 weeks ago DJ was attacked by the neighbor kid across the street who is 7 by wrapping our garden hose around his neck.... yeah so we are definitely ready to leave this place.

So, our lease was due to be up February 1 and we didn't want to move in the middle of the year so we extended our current lease for another 6 months. We figured that we would have time to get our financial stuff in order and be in a house in June, July at the latest. Sounds like a good plan right? We thought so too, but life happens and, as it always seems to happen this way, hubby and I are struggling with housing right now.

Running Thoughts

So.......it has been months since I last updated you all here. Honestly, if I could blog while I run there would be a lot more posts up here on everything from politics to religion to family to stress, etc. But since those masterminds at Google haven't created yet the device to translate my running thoughts directly to my blog, I guess you all just have to wait in suspense.......

So I posted last September having just finished my first race ever, and here I am in May posting again after my second race: another half marathon. Trend anyone? So funny thing is I feel like now instead of fielding the "how do you do it" questions about school and 4 kiddos I get the "what do you do/think about on those long runs?"

So here are some my random thoughts from my amazing race this past Sunday. Which, for the record, I cut off an amazing 6 minutes off my previous time. Thank you Wildwoods!

• Mile 0-1 wow.... lots of people, I forgot what running with this many people is like..... Hey! Why can't I hear my music? oh yeah......I turned down the volume earlier
• Mile 1-2 HEY! THERE ARE MY KIDS and HUBBY! (I ran past with a smile and got big high fives!) and then my favorite thought; bathrooms? seriously we're like 20-25 min into our run and you girls have to pee already! Can't you hold it for another 2 hours?
• Mile 4 seriously? only mile 4?
• Mile 6 do I see uphill ahead? I thought this was a flat course
• Mile 7-8 thank goodness I trained hills! that bridge was easy, WHAT?! the turnaround is here, you mean I have to do that bridge again like right now?!
• Mile 9 time for some chapstick......or not (as i dropped it)
• Mile 10 HOME STRETCH BABY! (which for the record I actually yelled out loud, because what's another 3 miles when you have already run 10)
• Mile 11.5 as I pass a volunteer who cheers and says 1.5 more to go, I yelled back to him with a grin "HOME STRETCH BABY!"
• Mile 12.75 THERE ARE MY KIDS and HUBBY! and praise the lord I can see the finish!

There were other thoughts along the way, but honestly I don't really think that much while I run. I just love the mind clearing and cleansing that it brings.

Running

As some of you may remember, way back in February I started on a quest for a healthy life. Well it actually started last fall, but I officially kicked it back into gear in February for Lent. During the middle of Lent I saw a few facebook friends join a 30 day running challenge in March. So.....me being me joined the challenge. I didn't make it the full 30 days, I think I ran 27 of the 30, but it was fun and kicked my weight loss into high gear and I felt a whole lot better. March ended and a cousin of a friend of mine from college hooked me up with a wonderful running group on facebook. Someone in said group started a 3 month challenge: 12 miles per week in April, 16 in May, and 20 in June. I was game and I have to say of this challenge there was only 1 week I didn't make the cut. June ended and I was like now what?

Well, I got to thinking and reading more of the facebook posts from this running group, and I decided to sign-up for a half marathon. Mind you I had never run a race in my life (excluding those in gym and field day). Let me tell you I got some grief from well meaning people about signing up for a 5K first, etc. But you know I figured that I was already running 20 miles per week, usually in 5 days because of chaotic weekends, so I figured why the heck not! Granted as we had some really hot days in July and August I was really regretting training for a half marathon over the summer, but I survived. I developed my own gatorade (because I'm cheap) and learned I needed to wear my hair different on long runs and that a bandana was a great friend on hot days. I learned that the switch from 8 to 10 miles sounds harder than it is, but 10 to 12 was a little more challenging than I thought.

I also learned that in some senses running long distances is a lot like completing your dissertation. A lot of people think you're crazy (you are!), your family needs to be on board (who else is going to watch your kiddos when you need to go run for 2 hours), and it's easier when you have an actual goal date. Also you think to yourself mid run "Why am I doing this? I could be...... (fill in the blank)," you start saying things like "I'll be back in an hour, I'm only going to run 5-6 miles, it's a light day for me," which is comparable to the "I'll only be at the library/Starbucks/Panera/office for 2 hours today." You dream about running, and at least these were happy dreams for me, not the terrorizing dreams I had while finishing my dissertation. Your life revolves a bit around your running schedule. I had posted on our refrigerator my running schedule for each week leading up the race, which could be a bit daunting at times, but it was super helpful to me.

So then the next thing I knew the race was right around the corner, less than 3 week away and I started to get nervous. I mean what had I signed myself up for, so I did what all crazy people do: find someone just as crazy as themselves. I convinced a co-worker who I knew was a runner to run this with me. She at least had some experience running a long race, but we were both newbies to the half-marathon. Of course then we were two nervous crazy people constantly talking about running, but at least I had someone to be nutso with. All of sudden race day came: this past Sunday and it was an amazing experience.

My friend and co-worker and I ran the Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half Marathon. There was live music along the course, cheerleaders, crazy fans and family and of course the running. It was a nice course, relatively flat compared to what I am used to running. I had a goal of 2:20, while I didn't make my goal (2:26) I ran those entire 13.1 miles! It was a great experience and unlike my dissertation, something I'll gladly repeat (I mean who wants/needs a second PhD!)

So all in all it's just another day in the life of the crazy mom, with my usual life lessons:

• If you can set your mind to it and train/study for it- You can do it.
• Saying you can't do something because you have kids is an excuse (yes I know there are some exceptions to this)

So here I am just finished my first half-marathon and 25 pounds lighter than I was this time last year. So what are you going to go do?