Hello? Are You Still Out There?

Hey, you guys.  I'm still here, or I'm back...or whichever way you look at it.  I hope I haven't lost some of ya.  I had a friend email me today to check up on me because I haven't been blogging.  (Thanks, Cece!)  Now that's what makes a blogger's heart go pitter-patter...when someone misses their posting. 

Tomorrow is the first day of May.  Isn't that amazing?  Any day now I'll start feeling like summer is practically over because there will only be so much time to fit in running, golf, and tennis in the next couple of months.  Summer will fly.  How do I know?  Because that's how it is every year. 

So with us being on the horizon of May, I'm gonna try another NaBloPoMo.  This time I can't promise 31 posts in 31 days.  I've learned from the April challenge  that sometimes life just throws a few wrenches into the mix, and I'll either be away from my laptop or my mind will be a hundred miles away on occasion.  The last 10 days my mind has been exactly that...100 miles away.  Right now my mind feels like it's on its way back into the general neighborhood.  Thus, I'm blogging.  I hope I'm able to camp here for awhile.

As I was saying, though, my intention is to get back to the daily posting to the best of my ability.  I like having focus and a goal.  The May challenge theme is "VOICES", which could get interesting if I think outside the box.  Let's wait and see what I can do with this theme.  Yes...let's wait...and see.....

My Heart's Just Not In It

I have attempted to write something in the last couple of days, but nothing was coming.  It's been an unusual week here, and I've been very distracted from my little blog.  I couldn't think of a thing to say because my heart just wasn't in it, and I had no idea what to say.

On Monday my friend Judy got word her mother-in-law had taken a turn for the worse with her battle against cancer.  She had only really been diagnosed in February, but this was one of the most aggressive cases I have personally known of.  She went to be with the Lord on Thursday.  So I had been spending some time with my friend until she made the trip to be with family on Saturday.

Also last Tuesday Rich came down with a nasty stomach flu.  Once the initial 24 hours passed he felt better off and on, but not until the middle of last night did he finally feel completely well.  The only good thing about that was I got a break from cooking for a week.

Somewhere in the middle of all that I lost internet access for a day because someone had been digging over in the next town to steal copper wires, and they interfered with the internet lines.  Even if I had not missed blogging last Tuesday, losing internet service for a day would've messed up NaBloPoMo April for sure.

So that's my week in a very tiny nutshell.  Now you can see why my thoughts have been consumed with other things.  Hopefully, I'll be back at it this week when I get back in town after the funeral.

A NaBloPoMo Failed

Dear Reader,

I know you might have been cheering me on to meet my NaBloPoMo challenge this month, and it had been going so well.  Yesterday, though, my plan for a daily post got shot out of the water by unexpected circumstances.  I sort of got detoured, you might say, and was unable to get to my laptop last night when I would've normally worked on my post.  I'm sort of going through some stuff here but nothing I'm going to talk about.  It's awfully personal.

Unfortunately, I've missed meeting my goal in the home stretch.  Bummer!  Maybe next time. 

Thanks for hanging with me,

Liz

I Am a Runner

Well, it's after 10:00 p.m., and I just realized I didn't prepare a blog post for today.  So here we are, and I'm too tired to be entertaining.  That would probably be because I did a walk/run today for 35 minutes. 

I've walked a couple times since the weather started warming up, but this is the first time I did 3 laps around the park and added some running.  I didn't do too badly for the first day.  A really good sign is that I didn't ask myself, Now why am I doing this again?  Yep, that's a really good sign.  I think maybe that means I'm really a runner now.  Granted I'm a slow and sporadic runner, but a runner none the less.  I didn't entertain any thoughts of quitting, so I'd say I'm on pretty firm ground here. 

I can't begin to tell you how significant this is in my life and what a milestone I have just passed.  About a year ago I heard two Starbucks employees conversing behind the counter about running.  The one told the other the only way she would ever run was if she was running AWAY from something, and they laughed about it.  In my head I laughed to myself and thought, I hear ya, sister!  I wouldn't run either, unless I was running away from something...ya know, like if there was a rabid bat in my house or something. 

Anyway, I hardly recognize myself today.  I run to be healthy.  I run to lose weight.  I run because sometimes I just want to scream and I need an emotional release.  I run because I just want to.

Hi. I'm Liz, and I am a runner.

On The Prowl - Part 2

Remember this little post from two days ago about Teddy hunting down a mouse?  Well, it seems we were looking for the wrong species.  Let me tell ya, perspective is everything.  I sat here two nights ago hoping against all hope that a mouse would not come scurrying out from under that door.  Today, I would gladly welcome a furry little guy...maybe even make him a pet...knowing what I know now.

You see, we did not have one of these:

We had one of THESE!

In case you didn't know...THAT'S A BAT, PEOPLE!

Thank goodness I wasn't home at the time it was discovered.  Teddy found the bat in the basement and brought him up to the kitchen for us.  Rich went to see what he was playing with, and there it was, lying in the middle of the floor on its back.  He grabbed it up with a grocery sack and took it outside to release him safely into the air, and he flew away. 

Putting all the pieces of this drama together now makes complete sense.  When Rich and I came home on Friday, we couldn't understand why our mini-blinds in the dining room looked like this - with the slats broken.  We figured Teddy had seen a bug up high and decided to jump for it.  It makes SO much more sense now that the bat must've been in our living quarters and he was trying to get it.  We just didn't think he would jump that high to grab a bug and break our mini-blinds.

It thoroughly creeps me out to know that thing was in my house.  On top of that, people are telling us bats are coming out of hibernation this time of year, so it was just looking for a way out.  My question is, THIS THING HAS BEEN LIVING IN MY ATTIC?!?!?!? 

That's it!  I'm moving!