2018 WDW Marathon Weekend 5K

This runDisney race weekend was very different from the other two runDisney race weekends that I had experienced.  The weather changed the whole experience for all of us.  The morning of the 5K started out at a VERY cold 34 degrees.  I had prepped for the weather, or so I thought.   I was on the 2nd bus to leave my resort, OKW, at around 3:30 am.  Once I got to the race site, I met my friends in the character lines to take pre-race pictures with Disney characters.

The race didn't start until 5:30 am, so standing around for about in an hour and a half before the race started in 34 degree weather was hard!  The plus side of having to stand in the cold was that I was reunited with so many of my Disney running friends.  As you can see from the pictures above, we all decided to dress as the Aliens from Toy Story.  Our friend, Rob from Joyful Miles dressed as Buzz Lightyear and our friend Chris dressed as "The Claw" ("oooh!").  We had so much fun with these costumes!!

Many of our friends were walking this 5K, because they were doing the Dopey Challenge.  This meant that they were running all 4 races.  Since there isn't a worry of being swept on this course, it was more laid back and we just took it all in.  This 5K course took us through Epcot.

There were many great characters along the course.  I loved that so many of the Aliens stuck together.

We also stopped for some great selfies.

After the races, everyone usually hangs out taking pictures and talking about that race.  Not this day though.  It was SO cold.  Everyone made a beeline for the buses.  Disney did a great job having them ready to go.  When one left for its resort, another one pulled right up.  A group of us had reservations at Kona Cafe that morning, so I headed back to my resort to get ready and grab my girls.  After some delicious Tonga Toast we headed into Magic Kingdom for a little bit.  The cold wears you out though, so we didn't last too long.  We left after a few hours to go to Epcot.  Since I am a DVC member, the girls, my friends and I went to hang out in the DVC lounge that is located above the Figment ride.  When it was time, we headed over to Japan to meet up with Jamie and Angie's husbands for our dinner reservations at Teppon Edo.  My girls love that place.  All last summer they kept asking if we could go eat at the chopstick place.  😄  Once dinner was over, we called it a night and headed back to our resort to get ready for Friday's race.

Overall, I enjoyed the 5K.  Disney did a great job with it.  The only thing that I would change, would be the weather.   I have more pictures up on my video recap.  Check it out here.  My recaps of the rest of the races will be coming soon.  Until then...

Chores & Checklists

Hi all!

Today I am going to talk about "Chores & Checklists."  Do you get tired of asking your kids, "did you do this?  Did you do that?"  I do have a child with ADHD, so constant reminders has become a habit, but I want to teach my girls responsibility.  I want them to grow up and be able to function in the real world.  I don't want them to take things for granted and to expect that it to be all about them.  As a single mom, you learn to have a routine, or else you can't function.  This is true for all families, but especially true for the single mom.  We have a system.  My girls know the system.  They know that when they come home from school, they hang up their coats, pull out their binders for me to see, put away their backpacks and empty their lunch boxes.  Last fall after listening to my friend's podcast, I decided that instead of me reminding them everyday, I'd just type up a checklist for them and have them refer to that.  

This was all stuff that they had been doing already, but all typed out for them.  I placed one in their room and one in their bedroom.  I added a few things like a morning devotion, making their own breakfast (one child was NOT happy about that), making their own lunch, and washing their face.  I've learned that one child LOVES having a checklist and the other could care less.  😂  One day not too long after we started this, my youngest asked me..."Mommy, now that we are doing all of the work, what are you doing?"  😂  "My heart is filled with peace that you too will be able to function in the real world someday."  😂

My friends Jenn & Courtney talk about doing chores in the podcast too.  I have slowly been adding those throughout the years.  Since I can remember, they have been responsible for clearing their plates from the table after they eat.  They have been folding their own clothes for about a year.  After hearing their podcast, I decided in December that it was time to add a chore chart.  To make it fun, our Elves brought them one Friday night.  

I was very surprised that my girls were okay with this.  They made sure to point out that even mommy had chores.  😄  Some parents do a weekly "allowance" or "commission" for doing chores.  I have not started that.  I want my girls to understand that doing chores is what family does.  We all have responsibilities.  We are a team.  I'm also not at a place yet to pay them (darn you Disney).  😄  Next year, that will be a part of my budget and they will get a weekly "commission", because you earn it, from doing extra chores.  

Start now to teach your kiddos to be responsible adults.  We won't always be there.  My mother passed away my senior year in high school. Teach them to cook and do laundry.  Also mamas...if they forget something at home (a project or lunch, or whatever), leave it at home.  It just takes you not bailing them out ONE time to learn to be more responsible.  You won't be able to bail them out when they are in college or if they have a project or deadline for their job someday.  Wouldn't you rather them learn now while they are under your roof and the consequences are smaller?

One more thing...there are so many great devotionals out there.  I went the free route.  I got the girls each a binder and downloaded this daily devotional for them.  It also has a journal page that the kids can write their reflections and prayer requests on.  We are just keeping it simple.  😃

Our life isn't perfect and we don't get every item done on our checklist everyday or on our weekly chore list.  It's a work in progress for all 3 of us.  We are growing and learning from it though.  I am very blessed to be a mama to these sweet girls.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on what works in your home.  We are on this journey together mamas.  Oh and if you would like a copy of my checklist and chores, you can download them here and here.  Talk to you again soon!

Ann

WDW Marathon Weekend Expo

Hi all!
We are back from Disney and slowly getting back into our routine.  I am still processing Marathon Weekend.  There was so much going on and it seemed to go so fast!!  We ended up taking a later flight this trip.  Since we were getting in later this time around, I sent our main suitcase with our friend Meredith who had an earlier flight and it was non-stop, so that when we got to our resort, our luggage would be waiting for us in our resort room.  Thank you Southwest for letting 2 bags fly free!!

Our plane got in close to 6:00 pm.  I didn't want to risk us getting backed up with Magical Express, so we took our first ever Uber Ride.  This girl watches way too much Criminal Minds, so I may have been a little nervous.  😂 Our driver was awesome and a Vet, so I got to hear about his military days.  He drove us straight to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.  This is where the runDisney Expo is.  We got there a little after 7:00 pm and the Expo closed at 8:00 pm, so we didn't have a lot of time.  We went (with our carry ons) to pick up all of our bibs and race shirts.  I had chosen the wrong size for my race shirts, so we also went to exchange my shirts for a different size.  That was super easy.  It was cold outside and some of the bib pick ups were outside, so we didn't stay long.  My girls were such troopers.  Usually we linger at the Expo and take TONS of fun pictures.  We hadn't had dinner yet, so we didn't stay too long at the Expo.  I didn't even go in the building where they were selling runDisney merchandise.  We did make sure that we stopped to get a picture with Jeff Galloway.  Mia asked me "What's the big deal about getting a picture with him?"  😂  Jeff has been the one that has gotten me through my two years of running with his run/walk/run method.

I'm a little sad that I didn't get a chance to really explore at the Expo this time around and say hi to some of my favorite vendors.  I did shout an "I love Sparkle Athletics" as we walked by their booth.  😂  After we got our picture with Jeff, we headed to the buses to hop on the bus our resort, Old Key West.  The Romagnolo girls were STARVING, so we grabbed our dinner from "Goods to Go" at our resort and took it to our room to eat and unpack.  Old Key West is our home resort for DVC.  I never stayed there until last February during Princess Weekend.  I LOVE it!  The Cast Members are awesome and the rooms are huge!  It is also very close to Epcot and the start and finish lines for the races, so you have a shorter wait.  They also got us an air mattress so that my girls didn't have to sleep on the floor.  They were super excited about that!

Even though we didn't get to do a lot of what we normally do our first day there, we were happy to be at Disney and on Thursday morning I would be reuniting with my people.  Since I head a wake up call of 2:30 am (yikes), we were in bed soon after we ate.  Stay tuned for more to come about our weekend and the races.  

Flat Ann for the 5K

Reflections on 2017 and the Bling

Hello Friends!

It has been awhile.  It was a very busy fall.  I can't believe that today is the last day of 2017!  This year has flown by.  Today I am sitting down and thinking of all the races (& bling) from 2017.  This was my 2nd year of running.  I ended 2017 with 559.7 miles ran. My goal (& several of my friends goal) was to run 500.  Whew!  That was cutting it close. 

I began January by continuing my training for my upcoming races at the Princess Half Marathon that were coming up at the end of February.  I had lots of training runs as well as a practice run with my local running club.  I absolutely LOVED everything about the Princess Half Marathon.  You can see my recaps here.  I think my favorite medal from those races was the Glass Slipper Challenge medal.  You gotta love those spinner medals!

 In March, I ran the Humana Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon with my friend Wanda.  That was a rough race.  In April I ran the Run For Cover 10k.  This was my 2nd year to run it.  I was trying to bring down my 10k time, but unfortunately I didn't.  The school year ended with two races in May.  One of them is my favorite...the Run Like A Mother 5k.  This race is on the Saturday before Mother's Day.  This year was even more special because my youngest daughter did the 1 mile run right before it.  Next year, we'll be doing the 5k together!  The second race was the Rock the Block 10k.  Lyla did the 1 mile.  My friend Vanessa and I did the 10k.  It was brutally hot (the last Saturday in May, in Texas) and it did not start until 9:00 am.  Super hot!!  I think that we'll just be doing the 5k next year (same exact medal). 

Over the summer my running was hit or miss because we were on the road for about 6 weeks.  I did the best that I could while we were on the road.  To help keep me accountable, I signed up for runDisney's Virtual Shorts Series.  This year's theme for the medals was Pluto.  Those medals were so cute and HUGE!  I ran a 5k in June, July and August and earned a 4th, Challenge medal. 

I continued my training because I had the Plano Balloon Festival Races coming up at the end of September.  This year the Balloon Festival offered a Challenge Medal if you ran the 5k and the Half Marathon.  I did that last year, but this was the first year that they were offering the Sky High Challenge.  Since I love my bling, I made sure to sign up for the Sky High Challenge!  Next year they are offering a different challenge.  This one involves a 5k and 10k.  I am very interested in this one!  This year, Lyla ran her 2nd ever 5k with me.  She was a rock star!  The Half Marathon was much harder this year.  There was 90% humidity that morning.  I almost passed out twice at the end of the race.  I pushed too hard.

In November, Lyla and I ran two 5k's.  We ran the Pumpkin Spice 5k and then we did our first ever Turkey Trot!  I'm so proud of my sweet girl!  She loves the bling just like her mommy!  😀  In December about a week before the Dallas Marathon, my friend Kelly reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in being a part of a relay team for the race.  Since I had a long run to do that weekend, I ran the longest part of the relay, 7 miles.  I just love that race so much.  It's so much fun!

December finished with my last race today.  This was probably my hardest race to date and it was only a 5k.  The temperature was 31 with a real feel of 18 degrees.  There was a mist too.  It was SO cold.  My feet, hands, legs, and face were frozen.  Lyla-Boo did this race with me too.  That girl was such a trooper!  She was cold, but she pushed through.  Tomorrow is the 2nd 5k in the challenge, but it's supposed to be even colder so I told her that she didn't have to join me.  

It's been a great year of running and races!  Here is the run down of all of my races for 2017:

5k's - 9

10k's - 3

7 miler - Dallas Marathon Relay

Half Marathons - 3

Lyla's collection of medals from 2017.

I almost left out my Humana Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon medal!

Making room for more medals in 2018!

I'm excited to start 2018 with a 5k on January 1st and then we head back to Disney for Marathon Weekend.  I will be participating in the 5k, 10k, and half marathon.  My girls will be running in the Kids Races.  Until next year...happy running!