About Me

At the beginning of the month, I was able to attend Time Out for Women here in Phoenix with a bunch of girlfriends.  They did the overnight at the hotel thing again but since I am still nursing a baby, I reluctantly skipped out on the overnight part and just met up with them for the event.  I'm looking forward to next year when I can be a part of the up-all-night girly fun!!

As usual, it was a good, uplifting experience to be there and hear the inspirational stories, words and music the presenters had to share with us.  I was most excited about hearing from two, young Mormon moms, Kate Jones & Sara Wells, who are the food bloggers at Our Best Bites!  I have both their cookbooks and their site is always the first I visit when I'm looking for new dinner or dessert ideas.

Back to the part about me being a nursing mother-- I left Hayden all day, hoping that she would take bottles of pumped milk throughout the day.  I brought my pump with me and joined lots of other mamas in the mother's lounge for a little pumping session after lunch.  I'm glad I wasn't the only one!!

I'm so glad I can be part of such a good group of friends. They are always there to lend a hand when needed or plan a girls night out just because.  A few are missing from this picture that also attended TOFW but with family~

Katie Bodell, Melissa Thornes, Nicole Cronin, Heather Oitzman, Becky Hatch, Katherine Sam, Kasey Turner, me

Yummy lunch at some hole in the wall Mexican place in Phx

*****

I had the opportunity to sign-up for a co-ed softball league up in Mesa and play on a team with my friend Trish.  I was hesitant at first because it was a 7 week commitment, every Friday night (minus a few weekends for the holidays), but Matt encouraged me to do it!  I was soooo nervous because I haven't really played softball consistently since before we moved to California for school!  And it's pretty intimidating play with/against guys who throw harder and hit farther.  I have absolutely loved being out on the field and swinging the bat again!!  I was definitely feeling my "old" age and how out of shape I am after the first couple games - oy!  Matt and the kids have come to the early games to cheer me on.  Maybe someday when our kids are all a little older, we can actually play ball together. :)

*****

A couple weeks before Thanksgiving, I told Matt I was going to sign up for the Turkey Waddle 5K out by us.  Now, I haven't run since I was about 20 weeks pregnant with Hayden and I've actually missed running a lot.  I knew that I could do 3.2 miles, even if it was cold turkey (pun intended).  Matt and I did a quick 1 mile run a couple days before.  My goal was to run the whole thing.  During the run, I was reminded how much of a mental game it is.   I managed to accomplish my goal and finished in 34:50, which is just under an 11 minute mile.  Not too shabby!!