I am officially a Shealy!

Well, I guess you could say I have been an official Shealy for a little over 6 years now but I am starting to think that I am really more of a Shealy in spirit than I have admitted to being in the past. Can the desire for structure, hard work, and discipline seep in by osmosis or something? Or is that just called marriage?

As much as I really love summer - and I do love summer! - I am looking forward to the fall with great anticipation. These long, lazy summer days are starting to wear on me. I am longing for some structure. I want to wake up and know that I have specific things to accomplish. I can't take many more of these there-is-no-plan-our-options-are-limitless kind of days. I am like my two year old. I function much better with limits!

Fortunately for me there are two big things on my fall horizon that should help me with this problem. First of all - and this is a hallelujah moment - we signed Noah up for preschool. On Sept 2nd he will start going on Tues and Thurs mornings for 3 glorious hours! He will learn to be a little more independent, make some friends, and I will be able to accomplish an entire task without having to stop to talk him down off the ledge of a temper tantrum. It will be pure bliss.....

It will also leave me time for the second thing that I am so excited about...training for my next half-marathon. I am all signed up to run the Spinx Half Marathon in Greenville, SC at the end of October. It will be fun for a couple reasons. First of all, my old running partner Priscilla, and my new running partner Catherine are both going to run it too. Also, I think I can really improve on my time from my last half. I want to come in around 2 hours and I really think I can do it. I have been a little speedier lately and with my training plan all laid out I am ready to go.

That brings me to today....I met up with Catherine for our weekly run up the Cooper River Bridge. We have decided it will prepare us for anything. Running up a steep grade while pushing 50 pounds of jogging stroller in the hot sun is very effective training! It sounds miserable but I have to say it is sooo much fun. And good for me. Having had a bad attitude from a rough morning I finished that run and felt...I don't know, clean, or something. Yes indeed, things are definitely looking up!