Day 48

Good evening everyone. Today went pretty good. We were up late last night, and didn't end up going to bed until roughly 3AM, so I figured if we were up, then sure we could go to church. However, I knew that having only slept a few hours on saturday, I figured worst case scenario would be that we slept in and just relaxed. We realized what time it was at just after 10 AM because Erin's phone went off. Eric called her phone after trying to call me *but my phone is always on silent when I'm sleeping,* and wanted to know if we wanted to hang out for a bit. He said he and his girlfriend, whom we found out today is officially his fiance, were crossing the river into clinton from mt carrol. Erin told him that we had a late night, but to call us around noon and that we should be up by then.

Of course, we really did not go back to sleep. We decided to go ahead and get up. I opened Zoe's door and she had climbed from her bed to her changing table and was just sitting on her changing table right by her window playing with her woobie. I was like "Zoe love! What are you doing up there! Please get down!" She was like "KAY!" and climbed back down to her bed. Just after she did that, I tried to seperate her bed and changing table by atleast a foot or two so that hopefully she would not try to climb up there again. She's so independent and explorative. She literally, when she gets up from nap some times, will rip through he room pulling out new diapers, pulling the wipes out of the container and spreading them across her room, etc. Every time it looks like a tornado had torn through her room. Of course, "UGH!" is the thought that goes through my head. I try to be like "Zoe, sweetheart, you need to stop getting into everything. All this *i say as I motion with my hand to the wipes and diapers, and then clothes spread out on her floor*, is not a play toy."

Of course, she just smiles at me. That adorable smile. I know she is only 2 years old, but sometimes I hope that by talking to her about something she did, I hope that it is sinking in and she gets it. Does she? Who knows. We will find out as she gets older.

So because of how late it is right now, I'm not going to make this entry much longer than it already is, which I know is not necesarily that long. A few good things have happened inside of me. First, since I take the civil service test in just about two weeks, I have decided that beginning monday *tomorrow*, I want to get out and run/walk (but mostly run) two miles every single day at some point in the day. Tonight just before dinner was ready, *we had brisket, pasta salad and fruit salad, followed by mint brownies for desert, YUM!*, we drove over to the river walk, and went for a walk. We went about half way down, which probably is not quite a mile. I think we would have gone further but the bugs can be pretty bad over there, and so Erin told Lex, who was up just ahead of us, that we were turning around and heading back because the bugs were eating her alive.

So we headed back to the car, which didn't take too long to get back. Lex wanted to run so we told her to wait for us at the bridge. Both Erin and I jogged a little bit, me pushing the stroller with Zoe in it, her giggling the whole time as if she felt like she was in a bit of a roller coaster going much faster than she was used to, but still not really that fast. When we drove back home, I actually had the thought go through my head "I should change into my wind pants or shorts and go out for a run tonight." In a way, the thought that went through my head was "Oh well, I will just start tomorrow like I had planned," but the thing was that I actually had the desire to do it. Will I feel like I'm dying? Probably. But only the first time or two. The more I do it, the better it will be. So, *holds up glass of water*, here's to getting out there and running 2 miles every single day!

Oh! And with that thought, in closing, last night I decided "let's start the pushups and situps so that I can have those built up in two weeks also." The pushup requirement for the test is I believe 28, and the situps is 35, both done in 1 minute timed. The pushups were easy compared to the situps. I pushed myself and stopped when I hit 40. Collapsing to the ground and rolling over to my back, locking my feet under the couch, I started doing the situps. It felt like every ten situps, I had to stop and breath and center myself. I did do 40, but it took so much longer than the pushups. I thought "I will try again tomorrow," but was reminded today that I needed to do that every other day and just build the best that I can. What reminded me? When Eric and Sophie were over, I was on the couch. I tried to get up and both my arms and abs were screaming at me. I guess that's what I get for getting out of it for so long eh! So, *holds up my glass again*, here's to running 2 miles every single day! As well as building up my endurance so I can crank out the pushups and situps! As well as passing the test with flying colors! *drinks the water* One final note before I close. I hooked up my flash drive and did more work on my book. Went from page 98 to half way through page 102. It's coming along great. I can't wait to reach my goal of having it completed and revised, and then working on getting it published! All in good time. So I will leave it at that for tonight! I will write more for you tomorrow!

Thanks for being here!

CB