Where Have I Been???

Sorry... I was away on vacation. I didn't realize that people actually read this thing until I stopped writing for a while. Ha! And of course, as with any vacation, one returns to a life overwhelmed by chaos.

My vacation was great - I went to visit my relatives in Southeast Texas. This is an annual trek for me... sort of my "spring fling." I like to go down, visit with everyone, and of course return with a truckload of plants. We ate crawfish, too! If you want to see pics, they're on my website.

I did run, too. I was anxious to see how I would do in the humidity. Well, it was VERY tough. I ran 13 miles in 3 days. That's the good news. However, they had a tremendous amount of pollen in the air. By Wednesday I was sick. And as the days wore on, it became evident I was in it for the long haul on the "Coughing Express." That lasted through the weekend.

Most of my weekend was spent working in the yard. Have you ever looked at your neighbor's yard and thought, "That's gotta be the worst yard on the block!" Well, mine was so bad the weeds were higher than my knees. And I don't have just a few. I have hundreds. So I worked my tail off all weekend and got it looking better. I finished planting my garden, got my potted plants set up, and planted everything in the flower beds.

But realizing "I need help," I decided to call in the professionals: Chem Lawn. I setup a service with them to see if they can help kill off all of the weeds, and promote better lawn health. I've also called in an arborist to cut down my dead willow tree. Exterminators and A/C guy are coming next week, too.

Speaking of help, my mom did a REALLY nice thing. While I was on vacation, she paid for her housekeeper to come over to my house and clean it. I was so surprised! My regular housekeeper has health problems that keep her from cleaning homes, so this was a definite need of mine!

Anyway, now that I'm getting the house in order, I can start focusing on the running. Now I just need to get my health back in shape!

So here I am... nervous as anything... and not sure how I'll be affected by this little setback. I hope to try and run either tonight or tomorrow night to test out the lungs. Nashville is coming up quickly... April 28. Uugh!

But through it all, God provides. Especially when we are a little afraid of something coming down the track. Today I was fortunate to eat lunch with a guy who works in one of the Prudential offices here in Dallas. He used to live in Nashville, so I told him I was running the 1/2 marathon. "I ran that a few years ago!" I asked him how it was, and he said it was great. He said he'd run for a while... then walk for a while... then run for a while. The point is, he said he finished and that was all he wanted to do.

That really eased my mind. That's the goal - finish a 1/2 marathon! Gotta keep my eye on the prize!!!