Step counts and crafts

I know that step counts alone don't determine your ability to gain or lose weight, but it is nice to hit those goals every now and again.  Of course, if you also eat two donuts for breakfast, Wendy's for lunch, and ? for dinner, obviously the step count means nothing, but that's how it goes sometimes.  Do I always eat two donuts for breakfast? Of course not. Do I always hit my step count? Most definitely not anymore.  I used too, once upon a time.  Then I lowered it.  And still, I don't hit it.  But, do I hit my 150 minutes of activity/week? Yes.  So, at least I still have that going for me!  All that will change soon though, my step count will be going back up to 12,000, and my workout activity minutes will be doubling again.   Sometimes you just have to take it easy and wait it out, without letting it get to you.  Although, I probably could give up the donuts in the meantime!
So tomorrow is the first day of August.  I feel like it's been July forever, but also, I mean, really, August already?!  Not that I have anything against August, except that it means back to school season picks up and soon enough it's actually time to go back.  In fact, I had a dream the other day that I went back and met one of my new classes for the year, and they were terrible! None of them wanted to follow the rules, sit in their assigned seats, or participate in class at all.  Ok, that's not crazy out of the ordinary, but generally speaking, for the first few weeks of school even the seniors are a least a little bit well behaved.  Usually, the freshman are the unruly ones and that dies down pretty quickly too if you get a handle on it fast enough.  Perhaps it's because I'm not going back in September, but rather after Thanksgiving break, which is making it worse.  They're going to spend their first quarter with a substitute, and then I have to come in and take over, resetting everything, even if the sub did follow the entire 3-inch binder of plans I left him/her at the end of the year.  I haven't heard yet who my sub is, so that's all up in the air, but I'm really hoping it's someone who at least wants to be a teacher, or has some experience, and not just someone who is looking to kill some time.  Generally speaking, subs who want to be teachers are more likely to follow the plans and enforce the rules, whereas those who are just looking to kill time are more likely to be friends with the class.  Really though, I probably shouldn't worry about that at all, since it's not my problem until November, and I really can't do much about it!
Enough about school though.  Today I had to remake a craft from earlier this month because Ryan and I decided that it looked too much like a scene from Blair Witch Project the way it was.  Before, it was five crocheted dolls hung on crossed sticks, hanging from the ceiling.  So we agreed that maybe it would look better as a round hanging, instead of crossed sticks.  Which meant I needed to go get hoops to decorate.  That part was easy enough though.  I just got floral hoops from Michael's, threw some paint and glitter on them, and sprayed them with Mod Podge acrylic sealer.  Hopefully, that prevents the glitter from falling off because no one wants to be constantly sprinkled in glitter!  I haven't transferred the dolls over yet, but the hoops look awesome.  They're supposed to resemble a galaxy and I think they really do.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say I really nailed the galaxy paint look.  Go me!  I can't wait to see what it looks like when everything is attached and it is rehung.  As long as it doesn't look like the Blair Witch anymore though, I'm good with that.

See.  So cool!  

Guess who's back, back again

Sure, it's been almost two years since a post, but you know how these things go.  There wasn't much left to talk about, I felt like the running posts were all getting repetitive anyways.  But there have been a lot of life changes since then, so I decided to resuscitate the blog to get back some accountability for the future.  In the next few weeks, I'll be back to running again and I think throwing it all out onto the internet will help motivate me to keep moving.  Or not. We'll see.
We're also in the market for a new gym routine, either back to Title, joining the Y, or just sticking with Planet Fitness.  Lately, I've just used online PopFitness videos, which, if you haven't used, are actually really good.  There are all sorts of workouts available, with modifications even, so you can do them in your living room.  I imagine it's like Beachbody on Demand, without having to pay a ton or invest in Shakeology.  So, if you're like me and you want good workouts without having to join Beachbody, I recommend PopFitness on Youtube.  Most of the time you don't need any equipment either, which is nice. 
So, I have about 2 weeks before I can consider getting back into running mode, and probably about 8 weeks before I can actually start running again at all.  Those dates are fluid but good estimates.  In an effort to make sure I do get back out there, I signed up for the Baystate Half in Lowell on October 21.  My goal is to run/walk the route, with as much running as possible.  But, the last time I ran a half or any type of distance over 5 miles was back in January at the Louisiana Marathon.  So, there's a short training time in there which means a DNF is also a real possibility.  That's ok though, as long as I have the starting line in mind for now. 
As a quick catch-up on the running, since August 2016 I've done the Disney Marathon, the Stone Cat Trail Marathon, and a handful of half marathons.  Disney was fun, but really cold, so I would love to go back and do that one again, preferably with better weather.  I'd actually like to do the Dopey Challenge but it's expensive.  Plus, the year I ran the full they had to cancel the half due to weather, so I'm not sure I'd want to invest all that time just to be disappointed.  Maybe someday though. 
Outside of the running, it's been two years, of course, things have changed around here.  As a teacher, I left behind elementary school and moved up to high school History, which is where I've always wanted to be.  I made it through my first year of that and enjoyed the change, so I'm glad I did that.  We went on some exciting trips, most notably to Switzerland last year and Belgium/the Netherlands this year.  Our little buddy Nala walked over the Rainbow Bridge earlier this year, in February, and just a few weeks ago, we got a new rescue puppy, straight off the streets of Jamaica.  He's a real cute pup, but he is scared of everything, so getting him to do much is still a struggle.  Stella is still here and going strong though, you can tell she's not thrilled about the introduction of a new friend.  I also had my last coaching season this year, at least for the time being.  Maybe in years to come, I'll go back to it, but for now, we're going to be too busy with other life events for me to have to worry about coaching track.  If you can guess what our new life event is, great for you, if not, stay tuned and you'll find out in a just a few short weeks! And with that, I think we're all caught up!

The new pup

Stella living her best life

On the canals in Amsterdam

Our last big run together and Ryan's first half!  It was cold!

Breakfast on the river in Zurich

Disney 2017.  Yes, I was freezing in that costume, but I made it, there's no way I wasn't wearing it!