I'm thankful for...

As I drove home from spin class tonight contemplating the happenings of the past week or so, I couldn't help but realize that I have a a lot to be thankful for.  So, with no further delay, in no particular order, and for no particular reason, here is a list of all the things I'm thankful for at this moment in time:

1)  I'm thankful I'm in taper!  Normally taper is not a time I get excited.  The pre-race taper is usually filled with pent-up angst creating anxiety about the necessity to not run as hard and fast as I can.  While I'm still experiencing my typical tapertime anxiety, it's for completely different reasons.  Right now, I am worried about not getting enough training in.  I've had two 3-day weekends out of town in a row and I'm also back at work full time now.  Squeezing in all the workouts I need to (even though they're taper workouts) has been really tough.  I can't say I've been successful at getting it all done.  But here's what I've learned during my previous taper experiences: it's okay.  Everything is going to be okay.  I got my training in.  I am ready for this race.  I will fit in what I can in the next week and a half (eek!), but I'm not going to worry too much about missing workouts.  Because it's tapertime.  And it's ok.

And I'm trying really hard to believe the above line of thinking.

Cue anxiety.

Moving on...

2)  I'm thankful for a wine-filled weekend in Portland.  While I didn't get all my workouts in, I did a different marathon of sorts.  That involved lots and lots of wine.

In incredibly beautiful places (Dundee Hills wine country just outside Portland).

It was just the kind of therapy I needed to have one last hurrah for the summer and then buckle down for school to begin.

Yes and yes again.

And now the wine corner of my kitchen looks like this:

Perhaps it's time to invest in a wine rack that's made for more than 3 bottles?
Although I should probably get that toaster first...

3)  I'm thankful for my HLM.  The reason for the wine trip to Portland was to celebrate the onset of HLM Sierra's final year of her 20's.  We went down visit with her family (my West Coast family), dragged a couple other friends along, and spent a wonderful weekend doing wonderful things with some of the people I love most.

Happy Birthday Si-Murph!!  It's going to be a great year.

4)  I'm thankful that the first day of school is over.  Today was the first day of school.  While this excites me, I have to be honest and say that the first day of school is my absolute least favorite day of the whole year, from the teacher perspective.  I have to sit and talk at the kids all day, which is not something I typically like to do throughout the school year.  I have to admit that I can't blame the kids when I hear complaints of boredom on the first day.  It is boring.  There is no intellectual stimulation the entire day as we sort supplies, review routines, and discuss the realities of being back at school.  And no matter how many years I teach 1st grade (this will be #8), I always forget just exactly how small and kindergartner-like they are in the first weeks of school.  I have to retrain my brain and remind myself that in just a couple of weeks they will be growing by leaps and bounds, which is the beauty of 1st grade and why I love it as much as I do.  Everything just gets better from here.  And that's an amazing thought to have for the rest of the year.

5)  I'm thankful to be back at work.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I love my summers off.  I wouldn't give them up for the world.  But there's something about being back in the routine of work that eases my obsessive-compulsive soul.  Life feels normal again when my Monday-through-Fridays are back to their typical routine.  It's also nice to have something else to think about besides the constant self-obsessed running dialogue in my head.

6)  I'm thankful for dogs (but one dog in particular).  All dogs are amazing.  In Portland this weekend, with all the people that gathered for the wine-filled birthday festivities, we acquired quite a pack at Sierra's dad's house.

Clockwise from bottom left: Rex, Lucy, Dexter, Jackson.  So much puppy love.

But while I love and admire all dogs, there is one that I love the mostest (Mr. Spell Check doesn't like the word "mostest."  Neither does my own grammatical squiggly line, but in my book this word is appropriate when talking about lovable things).

In the car en route to PDX.  It was at a stoplight.  And Lucy looks very gray
here.  I got an email from the vet that very day telling me that Lucy is officially
a senior citizen.  I am trying not to freak out about that.

Whenever I take Lucy to places out of her comfort zone, my love for her grows exponentially.  For so many reasons.  When I am away from home, it is a huge treat to be able to have her by my side.  No guilty mommy feelings.  No feeling like a sap for being somewhere on vacation having fun but at the same time missing my pup.  And, every time I take Lucy somewhere lately, I get more and more proud of her maturity.  Up until this point in her life, I haven't really ever trusted her off leash.  But this weekend at the West Coast family's house, I allowed her to roam free whenever I was out in the unfenced yard with her, and she did wonderfully.  She made me a proud mama.

7)  I'm thankful for strong swim/bike/run muscles.  One of the benefits of not getting all my workouts in while I've been off gallivanting in Whistler and Portland or prepping the classroom for the kiddos is that my legs are feeling very rested.  Yesterday after making final preparations for the little ones, I headed to Evans Pool (no more Green Lake open water swimming this season...apparently the "toxic algae" has made it's way back into the waters) and felt great swimming laps for 45 minutes.  Then I decided to do a quick run looping the lake and accidentally averaged the run at an 8:17 without feeling like I pushed that hard.  Today after work I went to a spin class and felt stronger than I have in weeks.  All this combines to help me feel ready for next weekend.  T minus 11 days until race day.  I can do this.

8)  I'm thankful for smartphones and fantasy football.  I've done fantasy football once before.  It was fun, but that year we all decided to autodraft.  Yesterday I got to experience the live draft on my iPhone while walking Lucy before my swim/run (talk about multitasking!).  It went so smoothly and I'm quite amazed by the whole process.  I'm also excited to be in a fantasy league again this year, because I feel like my football knowledge/excitement has waned in the past few years.  This will help me to regain my love for and understanding of football that I so happily attained in my first years in Seattle.

Any suggestions for fun team names are welcome (our league is called the Lovely Lady League, because we're all lovely ladies of course).  I'm still undecided and feeling a lack of creativity.

9)  I'm thankful for the anticipation of life calming down for a bit.  This summer was really busy.  I felt like I was constantly on the go, especially in the past month or so.  Despite the fact that I wasn't working, I managed to keep myself ridiculously busy.  Is it weird that going back to work is going to calm down my hectic schedule for a bit?  I think I'm just better at saying no to excess extracurriculars when I'm working.  My decompression days become a necessity because without them the repercussions affect my ability to do my job, which in turn affects the lives and success of the little ones in my classroom.

Although I'm finding all the dots on my
calendar for the month of September to be
a little worrisome.

10)  I'm thankful for new adventures.  A new class.  A new school.  New coworkers.  A new role as coach for TNT.  A new life balance as I happily say goodbye to my long commute.  So many new adventures and challenges await.  As my "new girl" worries have subsided in the past few days, I've come to realize that this is a really great adventure I'm on.

I can't wait to see where it takes me.