This is the day I've been dreading for 21 years! When I turned 39, I knew it was coming! It's official. I'm over 60. I am officially on The Other Side of 60! I'm curious to see how things will shake out! #iknow It's early yet! As far as I can tell, so far so good!

It all started out with a huge SURPRISE 60th birthday party for me & my twin sister! Yup! there are two of us!

Nothing more fun than a photo booth on your 60th birthday! Me & Teri!

It was such a fun party! Cake, ice cream, presents, family, friends & fun! It really doesn't get any better than that! Oh wait! YES it does! We had our own #hashtag! #twin60  Seriously, our very own #hashtag!  OK, it might be kind of fun to be 60 in this crazy social media world!

Do you see it? Right there in the bottom right corner! #twin60

We took a bunch of pictures & #hashtag'd #twin60! And everybody 'checked in'! It was crazy! Those teenager grandkids don't have anything on us!

So for now, I'm trying to be happy to be part of the over 60 crowd but its definitely a new role for me!  I think I'm going to give myself a little time to grow into it!  I'm having a little struggle with  that S(ixty) word! But.....I'm going to embrace it or just fake it really good until it feels right!  Hello 60's! I'm planning to ROCK you!

xo Peace, Love & Grandmary

so it's been a year? Wow! Where have I been? Time to catch up. I'll definitely post about the 2013 Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge!  The short version is OMG! I can't believe I did it! I crammed my run calendar full until June then I sat down until September! We jet settled to Europe for 3 weeks & then came home in time to settle into the holidays again! And now here it is May 2014! Lots to talk about! Stay tuned. Much more to come! Soon. xo Peace Love & Grandmary

Running a few Disney miles right into 2013

It's 2013!  I got my last miles in for the year on December 31, 2012, New Years Eve. Of course I ran 12 miles! I'm counting this as my last long run for the Goofy Challenge Training. Next long run will be 13.1 miles on January 12, 2013.  I can't believe that date is nearly here! 

I've been training for most of the year. Long runs, short runs, hot runs, cold runs. Rainy runs, fun runs, impossible runs & miserable runs. I feel like I've been running all over the neighborhood, all the time!  Especially the Sat 'short long runs' & the Sunday long long runs! Every other week, whatever the distance of my long run was I ran half that distance the day before. I'm sure my neighbors have wondered what in the world I was doing! And I did too, by the end of the 'long' run! My hardest weekend was the 10 mile run on Saturday, and the 20 mile run on Sunday. But I did it!

I look back now to last January 2012 when I set this goal. Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. The Goofy Challenge! Run a half marathon on Saturday & a Full Marathon on Sunday. and what the heck, I registered for the unoffical 'Dopey' & will run the 5K on Friday. Why not?!  I can't wait to cross those Finish Lines! I can't wait to earn my medals!  RunDisney Bling is the Best!

So here's to the New Year! ChEARS to you & yours!  Peace, love & Grandmary

Thankful for the end of November!

Grandkids just make everything wonderful!

Well Thanksgiving came & went. It was the usual full house, full of people & the kitchen counters were full of food! For this I am still very thankful! It always takes my breath a little for that one little moment when I realize that everybody I love is right there!  This year though we were missing a few. But maybe next year, we will all be together!

Lots of stuff going on up to end up November! Work, ballgames, busy, busy, busy! We had two of our grandaughters stay with us. They were already out of school for the Thanksgiving Holiday and a great chance to hang out Grandmary & PawPaw for the rest of the week!

Roll Tide Mickey!

Basically everyone in Alabama just holds their breath for the last week of November waiting for the Iron Bowl...the match up between rivalry schools Auburn University &  the University of Alabama!  It was a shut out, stomp down this year Alabama 49-Auburn-0. Roll Tide! The following weekend, Alabama went on to beat Georgia  32-28 in a heart stopping 60 minute Dawg fight! Probably the best SEC Championship Game in the history of football!  Again, Roll Tide! SEC Champions!  Next stop is Miami, January 7, 2013 for the National Championship Game! They take on Notre Dame for the title! Sorry Irish, but you are going down!


Back to Novemeber.....we watched Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV & decided to take off to Nashville, TN for a quick impulsive day trip! We left first thing Friday morning, with one granddaughter with us! Our day started with lunch at the Wild Horse Saloon & ended with the Radio City Spectacular! The Rockettes!  It was fabulous!

Lunch in Nashville with Emilee

At the Grand Ole Opry House. We bought the Souvenier Christmas Ornament! Love the Rockettes!

I ended my weekend with running! Still training for the Goofy Challenge. I'll have to do an update post about that. 9 miles on Sunday, 18 on Monday!

Back to work for a few days, then two birthdays to celebrate! Who ever thought I would have a 40 year old daughter? Wow! that's about all I can say about that! Wow!  November 30, we celebrated my husbands 63rd birthday!

Happy Birthday you two!

So November is over and I'm happy to say I'm thankful. I'm also very sad about a few things, but in the big picture of my world, I'm just gonna be thankful that I'm as blessed as I am! Things always have a way of working out just like they are supposed to! Sadness and all I'm thankful to be moving right on into December!  xoxo Peace, Love & Grandmary

Getting ready to be Thankful

Thanksgiving Dinner. A very long time ago, I moved Thanksgiving Dinner to the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I can't even remember when!  I'm a nurse and sometimes had to work on the 4th Thursday in November. Just another day in the hospital!

When our kids were little, school was out from Wednesday through Sunday, if I was off work for the long weekend, my husband Johnny would take the same days off work and we would take off to Disneyworld. It was a great time to travel. Disneyworld used to be kind of quiet back then!  They would have a few things already decorated for Christmas, not much, so it was a little bit of Christmas Magic too!

So it just made sense to change Thanksgiving Dinner to a different day! And it still happens. We have added in lots of extra people besides 'just us'! Of course, all the in-law kids and grandkids are here, along with a few neices & nephews & their families. A few of my husbands cousins come and my sisters and some of their kids & grandkids sometimes come.  Our max was over 40 people a few years ago when I added in a 60th birthday party & Retirement party to surprise Johnny!  This house was packed!

There is always food and plenty of it. Everybody brings something. I fix the usual Turkey & Dressing with all the trimmings; lots of veggies and the all time favorite Macaroni & Cheese.  I honestly think I could just cook two or three big glass dishes of Mac n cheese, add right out of the oven yeast rolls, a couple of pumpkin pies and ring the dinner bell!  

I really love this day! I love for my house to be full! I love that my kitchen is overflowing with food & fellowship! I love that for one day, when everyone and everything comes together, it has that 'one big happy family' kind of a feel to it!  And for that I am thankful.  xoxo Peace Love & Grandmary

A 4 mile run puts it in perspective

I rested 2 days from running. Work & Life mushed on.  4 miles were on my Goofy training schedule today. I ran nearly 2 miles before I finally took that deep breath & settled into the run! I guess you could say I"m a little stressed! But the 4 miles helped!

My devotional bible verse for yesterday was Ephesians 4:31-32. Basically, don't be angry, mad, hold grudges, etc. Be ye kind to one another.  I'm really struggling with that. With certain people.  I'm struggling with being so angry with my son.  For throwing his life away. I'm trying to be kind and understanding, but really, that part is not happening.

So for now, I'm glad I have a brutal training schedule. I'm pounding out all my emotions all over the pavement.  I'm hoping by the end of my long 18-20 miles, I'll have it all together!  and my dear son will too.

Amazing how time just flys by....

Amazing that 6 months just flys by! Everyday, on my list of things to do, is check on that blog! And everyday, I think, you have really got to get better at this.  Yes, really. Since May, summer has happened, life has happened, marathon training has happened. And now it's Fall. School is happening, life is still happening, marathon training is really happening!

The grandchildren are all back at school. What a blessing it is to have grandchildren. Mason is 17, and a senior. Wow! Everytime I see him on that football field, all big & burly, I think, I'm gonna really miss him next year on Friday nights when he's off at college. yes. college. Surely, I'm not old enough to have a Senior in High School grandson about to go to college! Really, I'm not. My daughter had him very young!  He is a joy of a grandson. Such a gentlemen. Such a nice young man. The rest of the 6 grandkids are just wonderful kids! I love that they all live close.

I'll have to post all of our summer trips! We are so fortunate to spend lots of time with our grandkids. We have always taken them with us on trips, but this past summer, we kept the roads hot! The beach, St. Louis, Memphis, Disneyworld, Gatlinburg, we were world travelers! Next summer they are trying to talk PawPaw into DisneyLAND or the Disney Cruise or Hawaii. I'm OK with any of those!  We'll see how far they get with that! I suggested Myrtle Beach, SC or the New England Coast for a week, since none of them have ever seen any seen any kind of beach sand except the white sugary stuff along Alabama's or Florida's Gulf Coast!  So, travel plans are definitely ON, just no clue on the destination yet!

Life has been a biggie lately. Lots of stuff going on with our son. Heartbreaking stuff.  It's hard to see him struggling and not able to break the cycle of self destruction. It doesn't make any sense. And it doesn't seem to have an ending.  At this point, all we can do is struggle through the heartbreak and pray. So that's what we are doing. Somedays are more difficult than others.  But God is faithful.  And I know this is just part of it.  Eccleisiastes 3:1 says it all. To everything there is a season. A time for every purpose under the heavens.  I'm just waiting faithfully for the season to change.

Marathon training: one word. Brutal.  I'm training hard, but I'm behind. I say that, but I guess, in the big picture of life, I'm doing great. Simply because I am actively training. I've been sick a few times, emotionally shut down a few times, been in the ER, had a kidney stone, had to work, babysit grandkids, been gone...what else? But for the most part, every week, I have managed to get my miles in. There have been a few weeks the mile count was zero, but as of now, I'm on track, and working hard. My mileage count this week is at 23. Today was a back to back run. By that I mean, I did 6 miles yesterday, 13.1 today. I'm so sore right now, I can't hardly move, but by tomorrow I'll be fine and obsessed with running again! Thank God tomorrow is a rest day too!  That seems to make the obsession even stronger!

The Goofy Challenge is Jan 13, 2013. Here's how it goes. Saturday Half Marathon 13.1 miles, Sunday Marathon 26.2 miles. Yes....that really is Goofy to even consider such a challenge! But see....there are medals! A Donald for the Half, A NEW 20th Anniversary Mickey for the Marathon...did I mention it spins?! yes....spins! And a Goofy....for the Goofy Challenge! That's what I'm chasing! the bling, bling, bling!

Until next time...peace, love & Grandmary!