Into The

Blues. I haven't posted for a couple of weeks, I know. Immediately the reason for this was that I was a bit blue, not really depressed, just not in the mood to write a great "happy to be training hard and chasing those goals" post.  Training was a bit sporadic, vacation was over, and I was back in the office for the first time in a few weeks. Everything was irritating me a bit faster than it was before the vacation and I had to get settled back into a routine and prepare myself mentally for the challenges that I wanted to undertake.

I still haven't really found the routine that I want to use yet to rise up to these challenges (hint: that's part of the challenge), but the last 7 days have been so incredible it just had to lift me out of the blues.

1/6: Monday's suck, but we had a tribe meeting with Evil Genius's Indian Princess group. The house we met at was practically across the street from our house so we weren't late! And there has yet to exist a time were we all met up and I didn't have a smile on my face from beginning to end. This is such a fun group of kids and dads. It's hard to remain blue when you smile that much.
1/7: Tristan's first basketball game. EG's bff is playing in a 1st grade city league this year and had his first game. My friend Shawn is coaching the team, we totally surprised him when I showed up with Bigun and EG. I'm glad I got to hang out with Kayte some. Again, starting to feel better.

1/8: Had the first wednesday night choir practice at church for 2014. Again I smile from the moment I walk in the church door until the moment I get back in the car. Since I lost my voice for about 2 weeks over the Christmas break, this was the first time I got to sing since the Cantata. It felt wonderful to worship and sing again.

1/9: Thursday night I got to take the kids to a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game. One of the other dad's in EG's tribe works for the YMCA, and got us some free tickets, so I actually got to take both kids. The kids had a blast, the dads all had fun, and the Canes destroyed the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1. Good times all around.

1/10: Can you really be sad on a friday? I was in Hero mode at work finding and fixing problems with lightning efficiency. I had to drop off the kids at school that day, Kelley had to meet with a teacher, then EG won an award for Kindness, then she had a field trip that Kelley go to chaperone. So she was at the school all day, everyone had fun.

1/11: Saturday started with my return to swimming in 2014. The practice was really crowded, with 6 people in my lane. I was in the slowest lane and still swam at the back. The main set was all kick (fins) and pull (paddles), and since I'm more of a naturalist than that I got passed a lot. Lots of time waiting on the lane rope for a break in the action where I can jump back in for a slow kick. I still ended up with 3500 m in the 90 minute practice. Mentally it was kind of tough to get passed that much, it makes you feel insufficient. But I am still a strong swimmer, and that's the bottom line. Felt good to swim. I had planned on a bike ride that didn't happen. The rest of the day was playoff football, pruning the muscadine vines, and playing with the kids. Saturday night the kids ended up staying over with Kelley's dad, so we all went to Golden Corral for a too-huge dinner then a night of peace where we watched Identity Thief. Good movie!

While I was pruning, it would spurt up with a short bit of rain, then go away 10 minutes later. Just long enough to chase me inside. But this one time was different. All of a sudden the sky got as dark as night, then small raindrops started falling. Then the sky opened up and huge drops came down and I had to scoot inside fast. Turns out, this storm was moving through at 65 mph, producing wind gusts up to 85 mph recorded at the airport. There was a tornado that touched down on Tryon Rd in Cary, about 10 miles from our house. in. sane.

1/12: Sunday started by sleeping in late (9:30) and then singing in church. The service was incredible, the preacher actually made me cry from the choir loft. The kids were still out when I got home, so Kelley and I hit up an Indian Buffet then went to pick them up. After the huge mega-storm Saturday, sunday was 65* and perfectly sunny the entire day! The ground was soft, so me and the kids got out to plan this year's garden. They raked the leaves into a zen-garden path, then we started laying out the raised beds while Kelley and I started designing the landscape around the beds. I've got some great ideas for this year's garden, so it should be a ton of fun! After a few hours of working outside, naturally I was ready to go run. This weekend's long run got cut to only 8 miles, but it's a recovery week so that's ok. We ended up watching some new HBO stuff and relaxing sunday night. It was a perfect end to an amazing week.

I'm so happy and blessed to be surrounded by such a supportive family and friends. Yes I did still get plenty of mid-week workouts done too, biking, running, yoga, strength training. I got a lot done, got lots of fun times in with the kids, and had a pretty incredible week all the way around. And yes now I'm feeling much better, thanks.