{June Ramblings}

June 1^st!!! 

In 35 days this family of 5 will be headed west to sunny SoCal!!! It has been 2 years (3 summers) since we have been home. 2 YEARS and 3 SUMMERS!!! Family, friends, the beach, the mountains, and even a little bit of Disney! As much as I love my home in the south, I miss my home on the west coast and I can’t wait to get back. The month of June just might be the longest month of my life!!!

Before I get too far into thought, I wanted to share that I decided to take on a couple of fitness challenges for the month of June. Although I’ve been doing fairly well at keeping myself focused, I have learned that I tend to do better when I commit myself to something. Ironically enough, this morning as I was browsing through a few of my favorite running blogs, I happen to come across two June challenges that appealed to me. Over the past couple of days I have been trying to figure out a workout schedule that would keep me going strong while trying to balance life with two classes, three kids, a husband, and a house. I think I have something figured out but I was happy to find a challenge (or two) that would help me stay focused and committed. My goal over the next month will be to track myself on here using the June challenge hosted by Another Mother Runner. The challenge is to workout 5-6 days a week and then submit the June workout calendar at the end of the month. I will also be attempting to complete the 100x challenge hosted by Dream Big Runner which requires me to complete 400 regular sit-ups in the month of June. Nothing to horrible...right???

  

If any of my crazy friends (yes you reading this) out there would like to join me over the next month, please do!!! I love to give my support as much as I love to receive it!!!

If you would like to read more about the two challenges, follow the links under each picture for more information.

Another Mother Runner

Dream Big Runner

Okay now onto my thoughts.         

In case you hadn’t heard, my summer classes begin next week. I’m a little nervous about how the next 3 weeks will pan out but nonetheless, I’m ready to battle my way through. The Masters program I am in is offering two 3 week summer sessions. Originally, I was supposed to be taking 1 class in each session which put me in school for 6 weeks this summer. Not ideal for anyone but, we knew that California could potentially be a golden prize at the end so after several in depth family discussions, we decided it was worth it.

Fast forward to the week of May 21st, mommy guilt started to set in the closer I got to registration and then there was that tiny bit of panic that set in every time I thought about me driving 1700 miles with 3 kids and 1 dog all alone!!! If push came to shove I know that I could have done it but the thought of doing it, made my tummy flip flop. I made the decision to drop my second class even though it was the one I had been looking forward to taking and also because I have a goal to graduate by a certain date. We figured if I took just one class, Jason and I would at least be able to tackle the drive to California together or so we hoped.

Somewhere there is ALWAYS a silver lining...or a reason for things working out the way they are supposed to anyway. When I went in to talk to the director and my academic advisor, they both really wanted to work with me so that I wouldn’t miss out. They both know what my goals are and they are working with me so that I can hopefully meet them. They put their heads together and came up with a solution. Instead of taking 1 class during each session, I was bumped into 2 classes in the first session. That means that I will be taking 2 classes in a 3 week period. As a matter of fact there is sweat dripping down my forehead right now!!! This is a first for me. I know that I will have no life outside of school for the next three weeks. I also know that the kids will not have much of a summer break for the next three weeks. Mommy guilt is eating away but I have to keep telling myself that it is only 3 weeks...only 3 weeks and the grand golden prize will be 4 glorious weeks in CALIFORNIA!!!! The other upside to all of this, as I was trying to recover from brief heart failure (trying to figure out how I would manage 2 classes in 3 weeks), Jason was busy making changes of his own. Instead of flying, he was authorized to drive. CARTWHEELS!!!!

This summer we will embark on our very first family of 5 (6 to include Millie) road trip. Sure we’ve been on several road trips as a family but none that have ever taken us this far.

Needless to say, I don’t know how much blogging I will be doing over the next 3 weeks. I doubt there will be much to share, maybe some shed tears here and there. However, I will be very excited to share all about our trip. I’m sure there will be a tale or two to tell about our road trip.              

P.S. This is what our babies looked like before we packed our house on the west coast and moved south to Louisiana.

Amazing what a couple of years can do to 3 kids!