finding your confidence

So this weekend has us traveling around the state again for more AAU basketball (which I love!).  We had a couple of weeks off for spring vacation and it was great to get back to the 'routine' again.

This season has been a great learning season for Sissy.  She has been challenged to play up a level.  To constantly play with and against girls that are at her skill level and above.   She has learned a lot and worked through some mental obstacles.   She had episodes of losing her confidence in her abilities and was playing scared.  Afraid to make a mistake.  Afraid to have the ball.

I know this feeling.  I know it well.

It was really the only feeling I had in sports for a long while.  I was a small girl, who developed late and was always shorter than everyone.  I played sports because I loved to, but I always knew I wasn't the best or even good.  I was average.

When you are average, it can be pretty hard to play with confidence.  You know you are not as good as everyone else.  You know that they are just looking for you to make a mistake.  At least that is how you feel.  Maybe everyone else is feeling the same way, but you just feel like everyone is just waiting for you to screw up.

Mentally, you beat yourself down.  You begin to question whether you should take that 3-pointer, or shoot that soccer ball for a goal, or serve that ball for an ace.

There are at least two tennis matches that I can remember that I lost simply because I lost my confidence. (I'm sure there were more, but my memory banks can only hold so much information....) I mentally let my mistakes or my opponent's lack of mistakes get in my head and I felt there was no way I could win.

Once you are defeated in your head, it's over.  The famous choke factor.

I swear, succeeding in athletics is 50% skill and 50% believing in yourself.  The best in athletics are mentally strong in addition to having skills.

Do you remember the first time that you felt that confidence in yourself?  I do.  I can remember it.  I was a senior and she was a sophomore.  We were on our school tennis team and the coach ranked us.  He put me in the number 1 position and I knew it was because I was a senior and she was younger.  She was better and we both knew it.

Of course, she challenged me for my #1 spot.  We played a match and it was close.  I don't remember if she choked or I played well, but somehow, I won.  I thought it was a fluke.  She thought it was a fluke.  She had had a bad day.

So, of course, when she could, she challenged me again.  We played again.  I won again.  Seriously.  I could not believe that I had won twice in a row!  It was really the best feeling ever.  Like maybe I really did deserve the #1 spot.  Honestly, I didn't even care about playing #1 but it sure was nice to have defended it.  Twice.

She challenged me another time and beat me that time, but by then I didn't care.  Like I said, I never cared about playing #1, but I had found my confidence by those two wins, that it was all worth it.  I could play and I could win.  Even against players who I thought were better than me.  It was a good feeling.

One other time that I felt that confidence in myself was after my first triathlon.  I never in a million years had envisioned myself completing a tri, let alone winning my age group!  On my first one!  I could do it!  One of the best feelings ever.

Sissy got that feeling this weekend during one of her games.  She had some excellent defensive plays that sparked a change in herself and her teammates and changed the feel and pace of the game.   She went from passing the ball away to keeping it and dribbling, making a play or scoring.  It was so fun to see that change in her.

If you think you can win, you can win.

If you think you can finish a tri, you can finish!

If you think you can steal the ball and score, you can!

How do you keep your confidence in yourself?

How do you teach that to a kid?

Questions for You!

Since I have no races to speak of coming up and no real training going on (see previous funk post), I'm going to pose a few questions to you to see what you all think.  (or all y'all, if I were still in the south..).

1.  Does a breakfast of quinoa and fish covered in cream of chicken soup negate the nutritional value of the quinoa?  I just think quinoa plain is the most blah thing ever.  Plus it's hard to chew.

2.  Would you rather drive a car that rattles like you are ghetto-tastic as it idles but otherwise drives fine and you own outright, or purchase a used car that doesn't rattle but will give you a car payment?

3.  Softball or tennis?  For me, tennis all the way.  I suck at softball.

4.  Ever notice how sometimes you pee fast and other days you pee slow?  What is that all about anyway?

5.  We have Cold Stone Creamery around here and it is just delicious.  If you haven't been there, basically, it's really fatty ice cream in yummy flavors that they scoop out onto a cold stone surface to mix-in your toppings.  When we went to Florida for our vacation, we saw another chain called Marble Slab Creamery.  We went, of course--it is ice cream!, and found it was like a cheap knock-off of Cold Stone. 

Upon further investigation (read: wikipedia), I found that, in fact, Marble Stone Creamery is the original.  It was founded in 1986 and that Cold Stone is the knock-off founded in 1988. 

Whatever.  Cold Stone does it better and Marble Slab sounds like a two-bit copy cat. 

Cold Stone or Marble Slab?

6.  Bald-ish heads on little boys or not?  I always equate bald-ish little boys haircuts with concentration camps or cancer.  So I really don't care for it when my husband wants to cut off all of Manimal's hair.  Of course, Manimal wants his hair cut off too, so I'm just shit out of luck.  Here's the result:

I'm sorry, but this kid is still freakin' cute.  Even with a bald head.

Boys with hair or crew cuts?

That's all for now, folks!  I hope you have a great weekend!!

funktastic

Times have been funktastic here.  I have been in an exercise funk for the past two weeks.  Vacation did a number on me and I really wasn't able to do much of anything while away.  I did get to the elliptical for 20 minutes while the kids swam once and I did a 4.5 mile run and 15 min spin one morning but that was it.  Lame-o.  All that nice weather and I squandered it by not running more. 
Surprisingly, I don't seem to have gained much weight.  I have not been on a scale so I cannot confirm that, but my clothes fit the same and I feel like I look the same.

Yesterday was to be the day of redemption.  A day of making up for the past 10 days.  A day to get back on track.
It.
Didn't.
Happen.
The gods were against me once again.  Somehow, I ended up seeing two emergency patients right through my lunch and where I usually get out for lunch around 11:45, I wasn't done until 12:45.  So much for spin and tennis.  That wasn't happening.  At least they were interesting cases--two completely different problems, neither of which I have seen in real life.  Only in textbooks. 
Welcome back from vacation!  Two challenging cases and NO lunch for you!  Yah.

Oh, and I lost two followers yesterday.  Sadness.  I don't even know these people but I'm sad they don't want to hear about my boring life anymore.  Which is weird that I feel that way because I didn't start writing this blog to entertain other people.  Although it does make me feel good (and surprised) that people are entertained by my babble. 

On a happier note, it is bright and sunny today!  And I am going to the gym at noon come hell or high water.  And May 1 is next week.  A new month = a new start. 

In a funk lately?

Are you looking forward to a new month with a new start?

vacation bummer

So Friday was the day that we were scheduled to go on our deep sea fishing trip.  We had previously postponed it from Wednesday--which ended up being a good thing because it poured hard from 6-9 a.m. and the seas were pretty high.  Friday was much nicer--no rain and calmer seas.  Which didn't really matter.... but I digress.

We had to be at the boat at 6:30 a.m. and when we got there we met our Captain Mike and the mate Groovy (real name Craig).  First thing we did was go out and catch some bait.  This was pretty much the only part of the fishing that I actually took part in.  Too bad for me.

The kids were awesome here as we were used to using the sebiki lines that they used.  We went to a couple of different places to get bait and then we were off.  As we pulled out of the harbor, Groovy dumped the fish guts from yesterday's catch overboard.

Mine! Mine! Mine! (from Nemo the movie)

The first part of the trip I was doing ok.  I got a little sick initially but then got over it by sitting out on one of the big fish holders on the stern and breathing the fresh air.  I was able to watch Sissy and Manimal catch their first fish--king mackerel.   Manimal also pulled up a pretty large barracuda which was so cool to watch.

Pull!!

Success!

That was about the time I started my downfall into seasickness misery.  I needed to go to the bathroom to pee badly but I knew that it would only make me feel worse.  If you have ever been on a boat, the worst place to be when you are feeling sick is down in the cabin.  The rolling and rocking is sooo much worse there.  But my needing to pee over took my common sense telling me not to go there and I went anyway.

All hell broke loose at that point.  Literally.  I got sick, like vomit sick, and back end sick and the more I sat there the worse it got.  But I couldn't get up because I needed to finish and clean up, if you know what I mean.  I guess we were done fishing in that spot because the boat stopped it's pitching and rolling and I was able to get myself out of there.

What's even worse about this is that our friends that we visited in Daphne, AL had given me some motion sickness patches to use so we wouldn't get sick, but I totally forgot to put one on the night before.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I took a short nap while we drove to our next fishing spot.  I felt better, but really, by this time, the damage was done.  I didn't physically get sick again, but every time I sat up I just felt gross.  It felt better to lay down with my eyes closed so that's what I did.

Hubs had a king mackerel that he was fighting that all of a sudden the line went out, and then slack.  Groovy said it was probably eaten by a shark--and he was right!  Hubs pulled up half a fish!

Half a fish is better than no fish!

More king mackerel, grouper and red snapper (which we had to throw back), amberjack and a bonita were caught.  Hubby and Sissy fought one more fish that had been eaten by a shark and then they fought the shark!  It was to the side of the boat and they were about to pull it up when it spit out the hook.   Sissy tried to get a picture of the shadow of the shark underwater but it didn't come out.

Grouper she had to throw back--it wasn't grouper season.

Red Snapper I believe.  Again, not in season so had to go back.

The catch for the day!  Yay us!

All in all it was a great day (for everyone but me) and I didn't mind it that much--being sick that is--because my family was having such a great time.  I wish I felt better so that I could have pulled a fish in myself.  Next time I'm going to make sure I use the patch so hopefully, I can take part in the fishing.

more vacation thoughts

1.  The more expensive the hotel, the more shit they charge you for.  For example, if you stay at a Comfort Inn for the whopping price of $70/night you get a comfortable king sized bed and pull out couch for the kids.  You also get 2 HDTV's, wifi and a free breakfast.   Not bad.

If you stay at the Sandestin Hilton, for $250/night you get a king sized bed, bunk beds AND a pull out couch.  Pretty good.

You also get to pay $32 for wifi for a week on 4 devices and $18/person for buffet breakfast.  Not good.

If I wasn't here for a conference, we would be staying at the Comfort or Holiday Inn.

2.  We had one of the best meals we have ever had tonight at AJ's.  It was a bucket of seafood for $90. $90 bucks, you say?  Sounds like an expensive meal, right?  Well, it was worth every penny we paid.

Can you say too many crab legs??

This bucket had corn, potatoes, two different types of crab legs, mussels, clams and shrimp.  We ordered a strip steak meal too just in case it wasn't enough food for our hoggish family.

I was sure hoping that it was going to be good because $90 is a hell of a lot of money to spend on a meal that sucks.

It didn't suck.

In fact, this would make a great Man vs. Food show.  I just might notify the Travel Channel to let them know what they are missing out on.  Good stuff.

3.  For those of you with families, do you ever notice that when you go on vacation there is always that kid or kids that seem to follow your family and want to always talk or play with your kids?  Even if your kids don't want to play with them?  Maybe it's just our family, but we always seem to have one kid that is never with their family but mooches in on ours.  Like if we are playing with our boogie boards, the kid comes right up to us (like he's our cousin) and asks to borrow our board to try.

Now this makes me sound like a mean old bitchy bitch, but really kid, we kinda just want to hang out with our family and we bought our boogie board so we could use it, not to share with you.  Go get your own freakin' board.   Now if we were at home, at a free beach, I might feel bad and make them share with you.  But we are staying at a $250/night hotel--go get your own freakin' board!  Are you going to share your pizza with me?? Not likely.

4.  Krispy Kremes really do rock.  There is nothing like a hot, just-glazed donut.  Especially after a really expensive pot full-o-crab dinner.  Good thing I ran this morning.....

Ever paid a lot for a dinner that was totally worth it?  

Do you embrace the mooching kid or not?

a few thoughts

1.  In the airport in ATL there were these trash cans.  Looked like a regular trash can but these ones were plugged in.  Why in the world would the trash can need to be plugged in?  Well, so when you push the door to throw your trash away, the door would close slowly and automatically.  Like the swinging trash can door was not good enough.  Stupid and a waste of electricity, IMO.

2.  Pensacola is the easiest and most user friendly airport I have been in.  It's small so there is no shuttle to your bags or your rental car.  One short driveway and you are right onto the main road.   We had our bags, car and on the road in about 20 minutes after landing.  That was awesome.  Oh, and no lost bags either.

3.  Y'all means you, as in one person.  Y'all want a soda?  All y'all means everyone in your group.  All y'all ready to order?  An important distinction to learn.

4.  If you are going somewhere or getting ready to do something you are fixin' to do it.  I'm fixin' to head to the beach.  Y'all want to go?  See how good I am at this already?

5.  I am seriously wondering if it might be possible to move here.  There would be so many things to do first, but there are so many opportunities for our family and kids that Maine does not offer.   One of the first things Princess said was, "can we move here?"  Well, I don't know.  Can we?  Something to think about.  Would my job be as good or better down here?  or worse?  Food for thought.  You always wonder if the grass is greener somewhere else.

6.  Eating out is not fast around here.  Mind you, we did have a party of 8 and it was Saturday night and it was 6:30, but we didn't leave the restaurant until 9!  A little different than the hurry-the-hell-up-and-eat-and-get-the-hell-out-dining of New England.

7.  Gumbo = spicy beef stew with shrimp.  This was not what I was expecting.  Crawfish = spicy, yummy goodness.  This is totally what I was expecting.

8.  I have an accent.  Right.  Cause I was thinking y'all had the accent.

9.  I backed into a van today at the beach.  Totally did not see it at all.  Not at all.  I am seriously beginning to doubt my abilities to back up.  Thankfully, the guy was a super-cool surfer guy with a country-boy accent and was like, "I'm fine if y'all are fine".  (There's that word again.)  I was completely fine.  We laughed, shook hands and left.  Phew.

10.  Alabama has completely surprised me with how much I like it here.

I thought gumbo was a tomato based stew.... ever had gumbo?

Y'all ever think about just picking up and moving somewhere completely different?  

Scary or awesome?

TTT--taxes, vacation, swim/run/tri

Three things Thursday--the nice easy way out of writing a clever post.  Here goes.

1.  Taxes

My week got significantly better on Tuesday when I got my taxes back from the accountant.

What you say?  Things got better??  I know, hard to believe, right?  But they did.

In a weird karma-like kinda way, even though the business made mucho less money last year (which, in turn, means I did too...), I still made my quarterly payments based on a certain income level.  So, that means that I grossly overpaid for the year and didn't owe one red cent!  Not even my first quarterly payment!!!  This has never happened.  I am actually getting a refund!

Who knew that I would be so happy to have made so much less money.  Go figure.

2.  Vacation

I'm just about finished packing for vacation.  We are leaving to head to Boston tonight to be ready for our flight tomorrow.

The hardest part about packing is remembering/charging/syncing/and bringing chargers/cords for all 5 iPods, 3 DS's, iPad, mac book, cameras, and 2 different brands of cell phones.  How in the world did we manage to go on vacation without all this stuff??  I have spent all day yesterday and today in between patients updating, syncing and downloading movies and music to each iPod so that each kid has something to watch.

I'm also kinda anal about making sure we have things like Advil, bandaids, chapstick, tweezers, eye drops, q-tips, nail clippers and such.  I hate having to buy that stuff when we get somewhere and god knows, if I don't pack it, someone will have some life-threatening hangnail that needs clipping and a bandaid.  Clothes, I don't mind buying, but somehow it pisses me off to have to buy a $3 box of bandaids or $6 bottle of Advil......

Sissy wanted me to make sure that I packed my tweezers because (and these are her words), 'you know you're going to have a man hair that drives you crazy'.    Um, yah, thanks for noticing.  But she's right.  This is why I now have 3 pairs of crappy tweezers--bought from previous vacations when I saw a chin hair that needed plucking.   Just so you know, they are way more obvious in the sunlight.

3.  Swim/Run/Tri

I am still reveling in the speedy swim time of mine on Monday.  I just can't believe that I swam 1:30 minutes faster.  Hopefully, I can duplicate that in the sprint tri I'm doing in June.

4 mile run done yesterday while Princess was dancing.  Yay for me.

I just got an email that there is an opening in the Polar Bear Tri on 5/5 that I put my name on the wait list for.  I really would like to do this one, but because of the last-minute planning of aau basketball, I have no idea what day or time Sissy's games are on that day.  Should I sign up anyway?  Possibly missing her game?  Selfish or not?

Are you selfish with your races?

Do you bring every piece of electronic equipment known to man with you on vacation?

Pre-vacation hell

I am in pre-vacation hell.  Whatever can go wrong, has gone wrong and vacation cannot come soon enough. I feel like the effects of the full moon are just hitting me.  Usually they coincide with the actual full moon, but this time, they are a few days behind.  People are weird, work is chaotic, and my computer sucks.

Easter was a really great day.  It was quiet, relaxing and we had a great dinner.  This ham I made was awesome.  Seriously.  If you are not Jewish, you need to try this ham.  I have to give my mother credit for the recipe, but I actually cooked it so I get credit too.  There aren't too many times that I actually cook something that tastes good, so I'm going to milk this as long as possible.

So, you take the ham (not the spiral crap, just a regular shank or butt) and put it in a big pot.  Cover it with water and add two cans of beer, ground mustard, honey or molasses and brown sugar.  We didn't measure any of this, we just put what we thought looked like a good amount in.  Then you put it on to boil.  When it comes to a boil, turn it off and let it sit overnight in the beer/water.  In the morning, take it out and put the ham in a roasting pan, add some of the juice to the bottom of the pan and cover the ham with brown sugar, pineapple, cloves--whatever you like.  Bake for 1-2 hours depending on how big your ham is.

The boiling takes the saltiness out of the ham and the beer gives it a yummy beer flavor.  Beer-flavored ham--can it get any better???  You don't have to bake the ham as long so it doesn't get all dried out and yuk.  It stays moist and yummy.

There were no leftovers.  I ate them all by 9 p.m.

Note to self:  Buy a bigger ham next time.

The kids had an egg hunt--Easter Bunny was pretty busy the night before hiding eggs all over our yard.  He also left a trail to their hidden easter baskets in our house.  Unfortunately, the dog did not keep good on his promise not to eat the trail and thus, the trails all ended at the bottom of the stairs.  I kept waiting for the backlash of the dog eating pretzel M&M's, kit-kats and malted eggs, but I never saw it....  It would have made a nice picture, right Kara?  ;)

I can't reach the ghetto clothesline!

Is there a 5 spot in here?  cheap ass bunny.

Do not be jealous of my kid's fashion sense.  They get that from me.

I did very well with my weekend exercise.  The Y was closed on Friday for Good Friday so everyone could go to church  (yah, right) so there was no swim for me.  I ran 5.25 miles instead.  Saturday the pool was open again so we all went swimming and I got my 2000 yds done.  Sunday, another 5.10 mile run in the morning so I had free reign to eat all the ham I wanted.  oink oink.

I do have to share with you my Monday activities.  Usually on Monday I play tennis at lunch time.  I went to change in my tennis attire only to find that I didn't have a sports bra packed.  ugh.  Yes, I do realize that my boobs are non-existant, however, even tiny boobs bounce when they are free.  So it was either skip tennis or play in my super-duper-padded-make-it-look-like-you-have-a-chest-bra.  I opted to skip. 

So I took the kids swimming again that night before dinner.  What I nice mom I am!  I disguise my own selfish reasons for wanting to go swimming as doing wonderfully, healthful activities with my children.  ha.  My swim was pretty usual except that I really swam my last 500 as fast as I could and I timed it.  500 yds in somewhere between 7:30-8:00 minutes!  That is a fair amount faster than the 10 minutes I did last time I timed myself.  I'm like a freakin' shark!  The seconds were not super accurate because I was looking at a wall clock, but still!  I don't even flip turn.  Maybe I've missed my calling.

How was your Easter?

I know your ham wasn't as good as mine, but did you have a nice meal?

Did your dog eat the Easter candy too?  Any backlash?

Three Things Thursday

1.  I can't believe we are leaving for vacation next week!  Wow, has that time gone by so quickly!  Easter, basketball, taxes and all that is making me stressed out--I have so much to do and so little time to do it.  We are flying into Pensacola and the driving to meet friends in Alabama for a night.  Then all of us are heading to New Orleans for a couple of nights.  We've never been there, so we are really excited to see that famous city.  I'm particularly excited to eat my way through the city.  Shrimp, gumbo, beignets (what are those anyway??), bbq, and all things seafood!  My friend from AL is also a runner, so hopefully, we can get a run or two in as well.  We'll have the kiddos with us so there will be no drunkeness, bar-hopping, boob showing and bead grabbing.  That will have to wait for another trip.

After a short visit to New Orleans, we will head back to FL and the remainder of our stay will be in Destin.  I have a conference there later in the week. 

Conference + Florida = tax deductible vacation!  woot!

2.  I suck at being the easter bunny.  I had just about 90 minutes of spare time yesterday in between Princess' dance classes to get EB stuff.  Why am I always so last minute about this stuff???  I make myself crazy.   Sissy came along with me, thank goodness for the help!  Of course, she wanted to shop, shop, shop for our trip next week!  We ended up getting a few cute clothes for everyone to put in the basket but also to wear in FL, candy and grass for the baskets we already have at home.  Now to remember to hide the damn things on Saturday night......  

BTW--the Tooth Fairy is a forgetful bitch at our house too.

3.  I got a Groupon ad in my email this morning for a Personalized Stuffed Animal.

This is not exactly what I had in mind when I read the ad.

Holy creepy!  Who the heck would ever want a creepy, freakin' voodoo-doll-looking replica of themselves?  Or anyone else??  Two wacko fools have actually bought one.  That is one groupon I won't be taking advantage of.

Any plans for spring vacation?

What does the Easter Bunny do at your house?  I hope he's better organized than mine is...

Do you want a stuffed head of yourself?

Ranting and Raving *again*

Here I go with another rant post.  Nothing too major this time, just something that is bugging me and I kinda want to see what you all think about it. 

I have been very irritated with how our school system runs the athletic programs at our elementary school.  Our school is a small school with K-8 in one building.  The enrollment is around 400 for those grades.  Pretty small, right?  The policy regarding athletics is that if there are enough 7th and 8th grades to make up a sports team, then 6th graders will not be allowed to try-out. 

So for this year, the 6th graders have been allowed to play field hockey, soccer, cheer and run cross country.  They were not allowed to even try-out for basketball or softball. 

This would make sense to me in a large school system where there is a separate middle school.  Usually, in large schools elementary school is K-6 and middle school is 7th and 8th.  But this is a tiny school and everyone is all in one building. 

My daughter (and others in her grade!) have played all the sports at the rec. level every year since kindergarten.  It is very frustrating at this age, to not even have a chance to try out for basketball and now softball.  Especially since every school system in the surrounding areas all allow 6th graders to play on middle school teams.  Even the larger middle schools! 

Instead, if they want to play still, they must play in a 3-6th grade rec program.  Third graders against sixth graders is never good.  Sixth graders are too strong and the third graders are just beginners. 

I get that they are trying to allow those kids in 7th and 8th grade who maybe aren't very good at the sport to have a chance to play.  However, if a 6th grader is good enough to make the team and play ahead of the older kids, then why not let that kid improve their skills?  Why not let them be challenged to play at a higher level?  Wouldn't this only make our sports teams better?  Shouldn't kids that have already worked hard to improve and learn a sport be rewarded for their efforts??

I'm not even saying that Sissy would have made the team (although I'm sure she would have), and I'm not positive she would have even played over the older girls.  But, I wish she could have had a chance to try out. 

What is it saying when you can just be on the team because you want to?  I feel like playing basketball this year even though I've never even dribbled a ball before so I'm going to play and because I'm in 7th grade I'm going to make the team.  Shouldn't you (at the middle school level) have to have had some exposure to the sport before?  Shouldn't a kid in 6th grade who can dribble circles around you or shoot the lights out make the team before someone who has never even shot the ball before?

I feel like it's saying that you don't even have to try or make an effort anymore.  There is no reward for hard work and dedication and love of the sport.  I feel like there is no need to take the sport seriously because even if you don't try or care, you don't get cut.  We have the rec program at the Y for beginners and those that may not take the sport seriously. 

I went to a small K-8 school as well and 6th grade was part of the 'middle school'.  We tried out for and were allowed to play on every jr. high team that the school had.  Teams that could have a lot of kids like cross country or soccer didn't have to make cuts so everyone could play.  But basketball where you can only take 12, kids got cut all the time.  If you got cut and still wanted to play basketball, well, then you'd better work harder and improve so you could make the team next year. 

There.  I'm all done.  Go ahead and string me up now for wanting to cut those poor little 7th and 8th graders who have never had the chance to play basketball or softball.  I suppose it all depends on which side of the fence you are on.  Do you have a kid that's been playing for years and putting in the time or one that is just a beginner. 

What do you all think?

Let the kids try out and the best make the team?

Let everyone play regardless of ability if they are in the right grade?

Funny Photo for Tuesday

This makes me laugh

every

freakin

time.

Bahahaha!

Happy Easter!  (a few days early!)

March Review

I cannot believe that March has come and gone already.  It was a long month, but it sure went by quickly!  This weekend was another crazy one--driving all over the state for basketball.  The Maniacs didn't win their tournament but it was still fun.  It was clear that all the practices that we have missed have really hurt us.  It was obvious that two of the teams we played had been practicing, had a good coach, and skilled players.  We have a good coach and good players but have not had much practice lately. 

Sissy played much better this weekend though, being more aggressive on offense and taking some shots.  So, for that alone, this was a good weekend.  Winning is great, don't get me wrong, but if we have to lose, I want her to learn something and improve. 

Yesterday was a nice day after basketball was done--we had the 8 a.m. game so we were finished before everyone else in the world had gotten up!  The boys took off fishing and the girls stayed at home.  Mid-afternoon Sissy and Princess came with me on a run.  I didn't tell them how far we were going, I just told them we were going to run.  We ended up going 3 miles!  I was so proud of them.  I knew Sissy could do it, she had done a 5K last year, but Princess is only 8 and that's the furthest she has ever run!  She walked in few spots, but that's ok.  Now she wants to run a 5K race with me! :)

On to my March Review:

Miles Run--34.5  A little better than last month, but a far cry from what I was hoping to do.  There was a period of 2 weeks where either I or my family members were sick and that hampered my efforts to run.  April will be better.  I promise.

Minutes Spinning--245  Pretty similar to last month and overall a low number.  We have had basketball just about every Saturday which makes it impossible to get to the Sat. am spin class.  No excuses, but that's part of the reason the number is down.

Swim--10,000 yds  Pretty consistent with the swimming.  Because I swim 12-1 on Fridays, nothing really gets in the way of that swim.  Kids are in school, hubs is working, therefore, no reason to skip.  So this is a workout I never miss.  This brings my total since November to 31.5 miles in the new pool!  1/3 of the way to the 100 mile club!

Tennis--7 hours of tennis

Weights/P90X--75 minutes

Races--none

Current Excitement--I am still pretty excited that I got in to the Beach to Beacon 10K Road Race in August and in less than 2 weeks we will be heading to New Orleans and Florida for spring vacation and a conference.  Florida + Conference = Vacation that is tax deductible!  Woot!

Current Book--I have two that I am planning on reading:  Girlchild by Hassman and Carry the One by Anshaw.

Current Music--I am really liking Brokenhearted by Karmin, which for some reason, is only .69 through iTunes.  I don't know why it's not $1.29 like all the others.

Current Misery--preparing my taxes.  'Nuff said.

I hope you all had a great March and a great weekend!