Happy New Year!

It's already 2016! I'm looking forward to a great year.

It's going to be so much fun watching Myles as he grows and develops from this little (big) baby into a toddler. Right now he's enjoying things like playing with his feet and putting all his toys in his mouth. He also seems to take pleasure in confusing me by sleeping 6 or 8 hours at a time for a night or two, and then going back to waking up every 3 hours.

I have some goals I'm really looking forward to.

• Physical fitness
• Run a half marathon 
• Go for a walk/run 3-4 days a week. On rainy days, a yoga or pilates video is an acceptable substitute.
• Spiritual
• Study and follow along with the Gospel Doctrine lessons. (It occurred to me that I don't usually try to pay attention and get a lot out of Sunday School. It's always been my least favorite hour of church. But I bet this will make a huge difference in how I perceive it!)
• Do the basics! Morning and evening prayers, scripture study, Family Home Evening. Why are the basics always the hardest?
• Other
• Learn to bake bread. Grandma Briscoe's recipe, to be precise. And hopefully foccacia bread.
• Make and stick to a monthly budget, especially in groceries and extra spending (clothes, stuff for the home, etc). This is a big one for me. Maybe THE goal of the year. 

I'm also going to get back on track with this whole blog thing (since I'm no good at journal writing, except my gratitude journal). But that's more of a plan than a resolution.

And now, a cute picture of my little boy. Because I can't publish a blog post without putting one in. Just can't.

P.S. I'm sharing these goals with whoever reads this blog as a form of accountability. If other people know what my goals are, I'm more likely to follow through with them. So feel free to ask me how I'm doing on any of them, at any point this year!

It's good to have a goal

This past April I ran the Moab Marathon. Quite slowly and very painfully (great scenery though!). And I hadn't been on one run since then. However, in the last two weeks, I've added two new running goals to my life. Events to work up to. 

     The first to come up is the Moonlight Half Marathon...in four weeks. Though the training for this will be intense and quite frankly stupid, I'm really excited. The idea is that the runners choose when to start the race, with the goal of being the first person to cross the finish line after midnight. I love running at night and this will just be fun. I'm training and running the race with my friend Beth from work. Goal: 2 h 5 m, on Aug 12.

     Next up is probably more insane, but I'll have more time to train. Ragnar Relay Race: Lake Mead to Las Vegas. I'll be in a team with 12 runners, and we'll rotate three rounds of taking turns running. The total distance is 195 miles, but I'll probably only be running 15 or 16 of that. "It will be fun." So far the team is my friend Kalie, her mom and sister, some of their cousins, maybe my boss Max and his wife, and some other people I don't know yet. I'm excited for this because it's not just a race, it's an experience! And probably also because I'm kinda insane. Either way, I have until October to get ready. Goal: survive and help team, on Oct 21-22.

     I have started training, and hopefully I'll keep training enough such that I don't die in either of these endeavors. That would be not so good. Also, any good training tips are welcomed. I need help.