Make. Believe.: New Year's Musings

First - just sharing this cute picture of our tuckered out pup on our way home from visiting family :)

Second, since I didn't have a picture of it - I didn't mention it in my previous post about Christmas. But now I have to share the amazingly thoughtful gift J gave me for Christmas! A little background to this story - I defended my doctoral dissertation 13 days before our wedding this past May and everything this spring and summer was such a blur. By the time I officially graduated in August and got my diploma in the mail sometime in September, it almost felt like it had never happened. I felt like I should do something with my PhD diploma so I didn't lose it, so I went to the craft store, bought a really cheap picture frame, and slapped it up on the wall in our home office. Where it still is to this day. Or so I thought.

Fast forward to Christmas morning. I open my gifts from J. First comes a book I've been dying to read for months (side note: I love that he understands that a book on the problem of mass incarceration in America is a totally acceptable Christmas gift). And then a beautiful, large, archival document frame. With my diploma in it. Yes, folks, while I was out one day, he took my diploma, made a color copy on resume paper so it didn't look like a copy, stuck the copy in my cheap crappy frame, and secretly got the real one framed properly. I love it :)

J also got a great gift from my parents - a doggie DNA testing kit! We swabbed Conway's mouth a few days ago and, assuming we didn't mess it up, should get the results in a few weeks. Any guesses as to what you think he is??

Our last few days visiting my family were nice. We got to spend some time not only with my family, but with several of our friends as well. (Including time with friends watching the Buckeyes beat Alabama! ) New Year's Eve is always one of my favorite holidays because I've been hosting a party in my parents' basement every year since 1999. We've certainly changed a lot over the years, but I love having the chance to catch up with my friends and see them (and now their kids!) at least once a year. This year was a small crowd because several of my friends were sick, but it was still a lovely time. We even busted out the SNES for a little bit of Ultimate Mortal Kombat III. Because apparently it's 1995 instead of 2015.

Conway's not sure what to make of this...

Toasting the new year!

On New Year's Day I ran a 5k. I've been dealing with some pretty bad GI issues for the past 18 months or so and am still working on getting a diagnosis. Running has become difficult due to the unpredictability of this. While I don't make resolutions, this year one of my goals is to continue to pursue treatment options and to not give up and not let it control my life. While this was one of my slowest 5Ks in years, it was also the first race since September 2013 that I did not get sick in the middle of. I actually felt really good the entire time. And I am thrilled!

This race was also a bit of a reality check for me. As someone who's been "a runner" for several years now, I sometimes fall into the "just a 5K" mindset. But this race was really great because there were SO many newer runners, so many people trying to start the year off right, and for so many of the participants - finishing a 5K was a really big deal and a huge accomplishment. I loved hearing friends running together and encouraging each other, saying things like "You're going to do it!! You're going to run THREE MILES!" And, with everything going on in my running life these past months, this was the perspective I really really needed to see. I'm going to try to run several more 5Ks this year and try my hardest to not worry about being "slow" or about "only running 5Ks" and just do the best I can.

A few more pictures from the race.