My First Half Marathon - 13.1 Miles

Today, I ran my first Half Marathon. Months of training came down to this one day and the picture above can pretty much tell the story. It was F.R.E.E.Z.I.N.G, literally. I've run in heat, rain, thunderstorms, snow, and even cold weather ... but I've never run 13.1 miles in 20 degree weather. This race was a huge mix of physical and mental ability.

My husband and I started the race bundled up. I started off wearing a hat, scarf, short sleeve dri-fit shirt, long sleeve dri-fit shirt, a fleece, lined leather gloves, long winter running tights, socks and shoes. I finished still wearing all of that! The only thing I changed was my gloves because the first pair got sweaty and my fingers refroze so I had to switch to the back up pair that I had in my pocket. Brrr.

Speaking of freezing ... my fingers and toes were frozen at the start of the race. They finally thawed out around mile two. My toes were fine from then on, but my fingers refroze as we ran down Riverside since it runs along the Arkansas River. You could definitely feel a significant temperature drop while running by the river.

Play-by-Play:

• Mile 2 - Like I said before, things were starting to thaw out. Also around mile 2, both of the IT bands in my knees started to hurt. I've had trouble with these in the past, but not usually that early in a race. They hurt off and on the rest of the race.
• Mile 3 - I could feel a blister forming on my left foot even though I took every precaution to prevent this from happening, ugh.
• Mile 4 - We stopped so my husband could take a quick potty break.
• Mile 6 - We saw this guy! Can you tell who he is?

• Mile 7 - We had a layer of frost over the back of our shoulders. My husband also had snot crystals frozen in his mustache. Impressive.
• Mile 8 - I told my husband that we only had 5 miles to go and then we could do nothing the rest of the day ... except watch our energetic kids! My fingers froze for the third time.
• Mile 9 - I surpassed the farthest distance I had ever run at one time (15K just 4 weeks ago).
• Mile 10 - I'm debating which one was harder -  this freezing run or giving birth three times.
• Mile 11 - I was delirious. We were walking up a steep hill when my husband started doing the Sasquatch walk to stretch out his legs. I lost it. I was laughing so hard ... from him, from the ridiculous pain in my legs, from the fact that my fingers were still frozen ... everything was funny at that point. While laughing, I blew snot out my nose and it started to freeze on my lip. This was insane!
• Mile 12 - A.L.M.O.S.T. Done! My husband was a huge cheerleader for me at this point. I was excited to finish, but I was cold and my IT bands were done. While going down our last hill, my knees almost gave out. I had to stop and walk until we were on level ground again. He continued to encourage me and we finished strong.
• Mile 13.1 - D.O.N.E! Thank God! Our unoffical time was 2:53 - leaving room for improvement.

After the race, we got our medals and warm plastic tarps, and we headed to the food tent. We ate a little bit and bundled up to sit down, to stretch, and to wait on my brother to finish the marathon. While waiting, we got to congratulate various friends as they finished the race. What a blessing!

By the way, my brother finished in 3:43, which was 30 minutes better than his previous best time. Way to go! Check out his icicle stache below.

Overall, I'm certainly glad that's over. I said around mile 8 that I would never run a half again. I'm fairly certain now, 10 hours later, that I will run it again. However, I will make sure that the weather will be warmer next time.

Hebrews 12:1 - "...let us throw off everything that hinders (aka bad weather) ... And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

Having A Ball

Our Children's Director at church is amazing! Miss Vicki puts in countless hours to make sure that our kids are well taken care of. She has been a blessing to our family and our church. Vicki recently decided to start an outreach mission that the kids could be involved in. She has a friend that travels to Africa to work with children in an orphanage. Her friend is going back to see the children at the end of the month so our church is collecting toys for the kids, and money so that they can purchase bed nets, etc. We are excited to support this mission especially since our items will be taken and delivered to the kids by hand. Vicki's friend will also send back pictures of the kids after they receive the items. This is a HUGE lesson for our kids. Not only do they see me buy the items at the store, but they get to follow the items until it gets into the hands of a little child just like them. Below are the racquet balls that we purchased as our gift to give the children. They have racquets, but they've been playing with wadded up pieces of paper because they don't have balls.



I chose three balls because we have three kids. I opened the package to let each of the girls play with a ball. We talked about the kids that will receive the balls and we held hands and prayed for their safe delivery and for the children. The girls were so excited to be able to bless other kids just like them.

Afterwards, I found it ironic to take these pictures in the girls' playroom. We have an entire room in our house dedicated to "play" while these orphaned kids live with much, much less. I'm definitely counting my blessings today ... and every day.

Acts 20:35 - "In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

I've Lost My Mind...

I'm a mom of three beautiful girls ages 5 and under. I work part time some of the year and full time some of the year at a job I love. I volunteer at church. My two oldest girls are taking tumbling classes. I. Am. Busy. So, in my "spare time" I've decided to start a business.

Let me backtrack a little bit. My sister-in-law is a vegan and my brother is a vegetarian. Their healthy decisions have planted seeds in my mind throughout the years, but it wasn't until recently that I started to see the whole picture. They're not weird. They don't hug trees (well I do have a photo of my brother hugging a tree but that's another story). They simply eat as healthy as they can so that they can fuel their bodies to be the best that they can be. For years, I didn't understand the concept of "clean" eating because it seemed nearly impossible to rid our bodies of all of the bad things out there. What was the point?!

The point is this. You may not become a vegetarian or a vegan, but you can still make small changes here and there to live a healthier lifestyle. I started making smoothies for breakfast two months ago. I started with 1 cup of milk, 1 banana, 1 cup of frozen fruit, and 1 tsp of peanut butter. After month one, I challenged myself to make my smoothies even healthier. Now I have 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk, 3/4 banana, 1 cup of fruit, 1 tbsp of protein powder, 1 cup of spinach, 1 tbsp of PB2, and sometimes 1 serving of super greens and/or chia seeds. I'm not going to lie, some of those ingredients used to be foreign to me until my sister-in-law broke it all down in a way that I could understand. I'm blessed to have someone that I can trust, that has been down this road, and that will take the time to explain to me what super greens are. By the way, they're amazing so ask me if you don't know!

One more flashback. Last April some of the boot camp girls decided to participate in the 30 Day Detox by Arbonne. In all honesty, I didn't participate because I thought they were crazy. I'm hypoglycemic so I already eat fairly healthy and I didn't need someone telling me to cut out this, that, and the other. Sadly, I missed the whole point to the detox. It's designed to be a lifestyle change. It's designed to help you cut out all the bad stuff that's in your diet and to replace it with only the good. It's designed to change your habits and to lead you to a more healthy life.

I get it now. I see the bigger picture. I see how I can help change people (and the world) for the better. I get to be the weirdo now. Ha! All joking aside, whether you're looking to detox, to start eating healthier (they offer a vegan based protein powder), to find baby products (that can clear up the worst case of eczema), makeup, face wash, etc. Arbonne sells it, and research shows that it's the best product on the market.

"At Arbonne, we are all about being green — always have been and always will be. From botanically based ingredients to forward-looking green improvements, being earth friendly has everything to do with who we are and how we choose to grow.

More than just grounded in green values, we are putting them into action. We're taking "pure, safe and beneficial" to the next level through our efforts to match the purity of our ingredients with the earth friendliness of our packaging. So what's good on the inside is also good on the outside.

We are constantly looking for ways to not only minimize our impact on the earth, but to leave it better than we found it. Our green initiatives span sourcing, manufacturing and operations, lightening our carbon footprint with each step forward. Taking the lead in our industry, virtually all of our product shipments are certified carbon neutral. Working together, we grow greener every day."
-from their website www.arbonne.com.

Is Arbonne cheap? No. Are the products worth it? Yes. Therefore, I will teach you how to get discounts on Arbonne products. After all, I love to coupon!

So with that, my journey begins. As my business grows, I would love your support so please let me know if you would like to know more about the products, if you would like to host an event, or if you would like to know about the business side of Arbonne. As most of you know, I'm not a "party" hosting person so I would love any help that I can get from my "party" loving friends and family. Trust me, the rewards will be worth it!

Family Reunion 2013



Last weekend we drove to Texas for the Bailey-Phillips Family Reunion. I recognized the Reilly Springs Community Center when we pulled up even though I hadn't been there in 13 years. This is the town where my grandparents grew up, and it's about 8 miles from Sulphur Springs, where my dad grew up. I love it here. I have many fond memories of going to my grandparents house for holiday's and summer breaks. My dad is one of five boys so every get together was huge. Lots of aunts, lots of uncles, lots of cousins, lots of laughter, and lots of love. Those gatherings made me want a big family, which is one reason that we have three kids of our own. Because my grandma had five boys, I just knew that I would have all boys as well ... wrong!

The inside of the Community Center was a step back in time. It started off as a school and ended up as a community center. We found a picture on the wall of my grandpa and his classmates in 1925. We also found a picture of Johnny Cash. I'm sure that Johnny would love to know that he performed on the same stage as my kids. Bailey felt like a true Star singing up there.

This picture is the reason we got together. This is my dad and his four brothers. I admire these five guys alot. I always have.

This is my cousin Jordan, and our families. Jordan and I were inseparable anytime our families got together, so it's neat to see how we've multiplied. She got the all boys ... go figure. Of course, I wouldn't trade my three girls for anything. They are my reason for breathing.

My husband and brother decided to gaze into each others' eyes compare mustaches. I'm still not sure whether to be grossed out or impressed by all that lip coverage.

No reunion is complete without laughing at old family photos and remembering the good times.

It's also not complete without giant lollipops and happy little (sugar-filled) kids!

How many licks does it take...

Pure joy times a million!

This picture represents the two D's: Death-grip and Determined. Get after it Miss P!

This trip wouldn't have been complete without Lou meeting her Great Aunt Marvilou. I think it made both of their days!

After the reunion we went back to the hotel to relax a bit before meeting a few cousins and uncle for dinner. My cousin chose a new restaurant in downtown Sulphur Springs. We were very excited to see the city alive again. Downtown has been "dead" for as long as I can remember.

I love this old courthouse building that is still being used today. And yes, that's my brother posing with his leg up on the golf cart thing. And yes, those are my kids honking the horn over and over and over and over so that everyone in the Farmer's Market can hear them.

You know downtown is hopping when you have two see-thru toilets on the square. I can't lie, it took all I had not to press my butt up against the glass to see if anyone could see it.

After dinner, we finished off the night with a horse and buggy ride. The kids and I had a blast, and Bailey said that she felt like a real princess. She was doing the pageant wave to everyone we passed. Good times indeed!

I love my family. We are blessed to keep in touch through Facebook, but there's nothing like sitting face to face and getting to visit with one another. The next reunion is already in the works, and I guarantee that it won't be 13 years from now.