This Girl is on Fire

 What a week! It was not only super productive, but I also did something I’ve never done before… I ran a 5K!

I have been working out the whole time I’ve been here, making the gym a priority when I can. I feel great, and I’m getting in much better shape! I really look forward to my gym time, if not only to catch up on my cable television. The greater Houston area YMCA is awesome, there are so many options for classes, and it’s just a really cool gym in general!

Megan, Karen, and I signed up for the 5K about a month ago, and we started trying to be very intentional about our training. I was really good about it for about two weeks, and then it slowly slipped away to the point that I hadn’t been to the gym in two weeks before last night. Oops. Life as a teacher just gets in the way!

We didn’t just run any 5K, it was a Color Run at night- this means that participants wear all white, and throughout the race, volunteers throw color powder on the runners, so your outfit is multicolored as you cross the finish line. We wore white t-shirts, and didn’t really have white bottoms to wear, so we made tutus to wear over our leggings. It was easy to keep track of each other with them, and they looked awesome by the end of the race!

We were so happy to be finished!

This was what we looked like before we left!

We had a very chill Friday and Saturday afternoon including lots of grading for Ms. Tully. I was very pleased to finish everything by Saturday morning, which meant that I could enjoy my Saturday evening and Sunday. I read a whole book over the course of the day, spent some time writing letters, and went to mass.

This week was productive for me in terms of schoolwork too, I’m lesson-planned through the Wednesday after Thanksgiving, and I’m hoping to be able to keep up the good pace and plan through the rest of the next week as well! It’s great to feel on top of my game. I finally found a balance for once, and I’m so happy about it!

I’m feeling in control of everything that I can be, and I’m super excited for what’s to come this week- including hosting Thanksgiving dinner for 18 people! We’re welcoming the other Houston house and the San Antonio community for Thanksgiving, and I’m so excited about it! I can’t wait to have everyone together to celebrate.

And if that’s not great enough, I get to see my family!!!!!!! Mom and Dad are flying to Dallas on Friday, where I will meet them and we’ll hang out with cousins Kevin, Susan, and Conor for the weekend. I’m so excited to see everyone, as well as to see a new part of Texas!

More exciting news: Ignatianlife.org read a submission that I sent them about some of my time here in Houston and liked it so much that they are going to publish it! It should be up soon, hopefully tonight or tomorrow. Go check it out- it’s the first of what I hope will be many opportunities for me to share my writing with bigger audiences.

We decided to road trip to Galveston on Thursday night... we went and sat on the beach for a while, looked at the stars, and made it home in time for bed at 10:30. We were so excited to see the beach!

Happy almost-Thanksgiving! Enjoy the music!