Namaste, Ya'll

I haven't been faithful to my yoga practice since before my bunionectomy in December.  I miss it, I really do.  In fact, I miss it so much, when I laid eyes on this cute green guy caught in the middle of his serious yoga practice, I couldn't help but bring him home with me.  He makes his home in my kitchen on the window sill right above my sink.  I look at him everyday, at least once a day while I wash our never-ending dirty dishes.  He makes me want to head back to a Bikram yoga class right away. 

Rose is off to her first sleep-over.  She has had a sleep-over at our home, but until today, she has not been to stay the night with any of her girlfriends.  Marigold took her to her friend's house for a birthday party/sleep-over, as he wants to launch a thorough inspection to make sure the home is up to his requirements.  I told her that she should not feel pressure to spend the night, if she decides it doesn't feel right or if she simply gets scared, she should feel comfortable to call, Marigold or I will gladly come get her.  I just hope she doesn't wait until I get into my jammies!  My baby is growing up so fast!  What happened to the six pound bundle I brought home from the hospital, ten short years ago?

Have you been faithful to your yoga/running/biking/walking/Zumba/Jazzercise/Curves practice?  If not, today is a great day to get back to it. 

Peace & Blessings to you...

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Gratitude Journal
1. Family and friends
2. Daisy's offer to bring me crabs tomorrow
3. A night with only one child
4. Coloring in a new coloring book with Chrysanthemum and having fun

Ocean City and My Second 5K

My Mother, the ever so lovely Daisy, treated us to a week at Ocean City, MD. As a gift of one less week of summer camp to pay for, she kept Rose and Chrysanthemum for the week. I was only able to manage two days off, but boy were they wonderful! This year we stayed in a fabulous townhouse right on the beach. It. Was. Awesome. We had such a wonderful time. My two days there were delicious. And I don't mean in only the foody way. Those of you who have been reading my blog for a minute know exactly how much I love the beach. Pretty much any beach, but Ocean City is my favorite. Something about the boardwalk and let me be honest, the french fries from Thrasher's don't hurt.

I took my beloved Brooks running shoes and I woke up at 7:00 both mornings and ran up and down Atlantic Highway. Not to worry, I ran mostly on the sidewalk so I wouldn't get pummeled by a bus or hungover vacationer. From the house we stayed at on 35th Street, each morning I ran to 70th Street and back. I clocked it on my car's odomoter, and it's a good two miles in each direction. That's four miles each day! Woohoo!

The beach was as I've always remembered it with nice crashing waves and a good assortment of shells to collect. Here are Tulip, Daisy, Rose and Chrysanthemum enjoying the sand and surf:



And here's Chrysanthemum completely buried in the sand:


And me, on the balcony overlooking the beach:

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My second 5K run
I completed my second 5K yesterday. It was so much fun. It was an all women's run, sponsored by the Reston YMCA. On Friday night before the run, I went there to pick up my runner's packet, including my first bib. Number 70. My new favorite number!! The packet included a free pair of running socks, and a bathrobe. Not bad at all for the $25.00 entry fee.

There were well over 200 runners and it was held on beautiful scenery that included the W&OD and Sugarland trails. We spotted a deer hightailing it out of our path at an amazing breakneck speed. All along our route were posters printed with affirmations and ideas to keep us motivated, such as: "Pain is temporary but quitting is forever."

And get this: the hills? They were my favorite part! I suspect it's because my legs are so long, but there's something very satisfying about running up a hill and making it to the top, lungs on fire and chest heaving. Call me crazy, but I find it exhaustingly fun.

There were lots of supporters cheering us on througout the run, and it was an amazing thing to hear people calling out to me "Go on 70!" And "keep it up" or "Do your thang number 70!"

I broke my PR by 31 seconds, finishing at 38:31 (I finished the 5K Fun Run at the Flower's school in May in 39:00). I'm still quite the tortoise, but I'm enjoying getting stronger. Someone told me that I should enjoy the process, and not just the results, so that's what I'm focusing on doing. I have no pictures at this time, but I'm pretty sure they snapped several pictures of me along the way, so if I manage to get my hands on them, I'll post them here.

I've registered myself to run a 5 Miler on this coming Saturday, 4th of July. That means I must spend much of this week preparing my mind and body. I plan to run outdoors on Monday and Wednesday evenings, while sweating it out on the elliptical on Tuesday and Thursday. Friday I'll reserve as a rest day, perhaps I'll do a bit of light yoga to lengthen my muscles some. Five miles will be a personal record for me, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how I do. I'm positive I'll be able to finish the run, but will I run the entire thing? We shall see.

Keep on running ya'll...

Cakelove, Dave Matthews Band, and a Babysitter

It was an awesome Saturday.

I dropped the flower girls off at Daisy's around 11, then headed to Tyson's Corner for a close-up of Warren's new location of Cakelove. It's a small spot in a corridor of the mall with only food, so it's in a great location - not too far from the California Pizza Kitchen. I entered the mall around 11:30 and did a little peruzing, promising myself I'd only look but not touch! Actually, I was pretty good, I only purchased a dress for Rose & Chrys's birthday pictures, which we'll hopefully get done soon.

Warren was in fact, at Cakelove right at 12 noon. I stopped by for a few cuppycakes and a pic opportunity with Warren. I figured there would be a mob, but only a few loyal fans were there for a quick greeting. He graciously agreed to a picture with me, which was cool.

Have you checked out his show Sugar Rush on the Food Network yet? His baking philosophy is to keep it simple, which I appreciate. These are some of the goodies at Cakelove.

After my Cakelove expedition, I headed home for a quick nap in preparation for the concert. Marigold and I took this picture of us as we were headed out. For those of you who enjoy DMB and have yet to attend a concert, I highly recommend it. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, however, as I spotted two personalized license plates expressing love for DMB.

One down...one to go

Marigold gave me a profound quotation today to boost my spirits and encourage me before the written exam. He said, "Don't expect to score 100 if you're afraid to fail." He said Quincy Jones said it and it struck him as very profound. I must admit, it was pretty good of Marigold to come up with something on the spot for me.

I had a nerve-wracking morning. I had to take Rose to the ER early in the morning for what I thought was an asthmatic cough and alleged pink eye. Turns out my concerns about the cough were not right, but the pink eye was. Apparently she has a virus that can cause the nasty cough, but her lungs were clear, so she was not in the midst of an asthma attack and no pneumonia (they did chest X-rays). We were there for three hours, which is probably a speed record, as far as ER visits go. The only good thing about the quiet of the ER is that one can get lots of studying done. Ask me how I know. Even when confined to a cold ER examination room, Rose is still as cute as ever.


The thing was, I HAD to get to work, as my written test was scheduled for today at 1:00 p.m. The CCMC people were going to e-mail the test to me, and unfortunately, there was no other way to retrieve the test.

After a mad dash up I-495 (well, as mad as I could as traffic was horrible, even at 10:45 on a Wednesday mid-morning), I dropped Rose off at Marigold's job and dashed off to work for a few more minutes of cramming and anticipation of my test.

1:00 came and went - no e-mail and no test. By 1:05 I was getting antsy. By 1:10, I was on the computer, sending a query. My test finally arrived in my in-box at 1:15 with a note of apology. We were alloted four hours to take the test - I took 3 1/4. I was actually only testing for about 2 hours, then I used the remaining time to look over my answers (I suppose I'm kinda competitive with myself). I made a correction to two - both were blatantly wrong answers where I had misread the questions. Oh boy. Sheesh.


Open book tests are definitely more tricky. Definitely.

Well, one test down, one more to go.

The Beach

What's that saying about a bad day on the golf course being better than a good day at the office? Well, I believe that a day at the beach, good, bad or (how could it be bad? ) indifferent, is better than most good days anywhere.

I've had a love of the beach since I was a girl - Daisy would take me and my brother for weekends at the beach whenever she could. It wasn't unheard of for us to take off to Ocean City for a beach weekend in the middle of winter.

Ocean City, Maryland is one of my favorite vacation spots in the entire world. I especially love the two-mile long boardwalk and Thrasher's Fries. Daisy and Chrysanthemum, along with Rose and Tulip are enjoying sun and surf along with us. Marigold treated himeself to a weekend of golf back at the ranch, sans wife and children.

TGIF

The Blooming Orchid thanks God that it's Friday.

After a long week of assisting employees with a 'transition' that consists of 70+ people being told their jobs will no longer exist after an unknown date, this HR professional is pooped.

I absolutely adore my job. I feel like after searching for many, many years through dead-end and trudging through endless days of jobs that were plain wrong for me, I feel like I've found home. At last.

I'm training to become a certified Career Coach; after working for nearly 18 months as a Career Development Specialist, I initially thought there was nothing they could teach me I didn't already know. Boy, how wrong I was! In all honesty, it's great to learn new things and be challenged. My training has been intense and thought-provoking. It's not over yet: I'm being supplied with five additional one-on-one coaching sessions for one hour a week by a Career Coach with over 25 years of experience. And let me tell you, my coach is TOUGH! She told me that at my next coaching session, she will be able to give me an idea of whether or not she thinks I will pass my oral exam. The thought alone of failing is devastating to me. The organization I work for is sponsoring me (they pay for the class), so to fail would be both financially and professionally devastating.

My locks are wild as ever. I've been stingy with my trips to the loctician and I can tell my locks are suffering as a result. In my effort to make the locks thin, I'm becoming fearful that I may lose one. It has a hole in it, I believe as a result of the latch hook, and it's mighty thin. I have two or three that are fatter than I'd like them to be, but at nearly 18 months into the process, I'm not sure I can or should attempt to reverse them and start them over. I'm so ready for my 'highlights' to be gone. They're irrititating and too bright. If you're considering them, I highly recommend a professional do them!!

I normally roll my hair on sponge rollers at night for a bit of curl. I didn't last night, as I was exhausted (Thursdays are the longest day of the week for me - go figure). As a result, my locks have little curl in them today, but what the heck. I'm still cute. And I'm wearing a new purple and black blouse today. Not only is it cute, but it's also comfortable.

I have a new found confidence and love of myself. I'm not sure if it's my age, or my locks, or the fact that I just feel good in my own skin. I'm having a really good time right now - I hope it lasts for a while.

Tonight I'm going to drop my van off at the closest dealership for A/C service. I hope they don't try to ake me to the cleaners. As my Supervisor and I like to say, vans are so unsexy as it is, to have one with a missing sliding door handle and ill-operating A/C is even worse.

Before I head home, I'm going to treat myself to a Greek salad for dinner and yesterday on the way home rented the Kite Runner and 4 Months, 3 weeks and 2 days. 4 Months....is a Romanian film about a college student seeking an abortion. The Kite Runner is the story of a young Afghanistan boy and his struggles to become the person he was destined to be. I just finished the book a week ago and I nearly cried when it was over. It was one of the best books I've ever read in life. I can't wait to see the movie - I hope I'm not disappointed.

On Saturday, Rose has a piano recital. It's her third one. That girl never ceases to amaze me. She is one of the most beautiful, intelligent and poised little girl I have ever met in my life. The fact that she is my daughter fills me with so much pride. Rose is headed to third grade this fall and she has been invited to the Talented & Gifted program.

Last Thursday night, Chrysanthemum graduated from Pre-Kindergarten. This child is the lieveliest, wildest, yet also one of the smartest people I've ever met. She is the kind of person who 'brings the party with her,' at least that's the best ways to describe her. She's headstrong, unwavering in her determination and not afraid to use the 'no' word. I love that about her. I can't believe my baby is headed to Kindergarten!

I plan to have a lovely weekend. I hope you do the same.