Take Three

Yup, I'm back. Over a year and almost a half since my last post. I'm newly 24. My little tiny kitten is now a year and a half, but still acts like a little baby. I am no longer serving but went back to school- for Massage Therapy (this experience will be saved for a later post). I moved back home to save money while at school and am currently awaiting for my license to become active so I can begin working full time. In the last 4 weeks, I've been rewatching Friends, training at my new job, helping my mom out with her blog, 365 Days of Baking and More, and probably most importantly marathon training.

Tyler texted me over Christmas and said she was moving back in with her parents and was planning on training for a marathon. Coincidentally, my parents moved to a house a street away from hers. It was perfect timing because I'd be able to start training while still in school and then have 8 weeks after I graduated to continue training. Right now, tomorrow marks a month out from that first 26.2 for the both of us. I'd say training has gone pretty well for us considering we both started with little training base and had never run over 13 miles before. Our farthest is 18 after the planned 19 this past weekend didn't happen because we got lost on a trail but the views were great.

From now until the marathon I'll write some updates but being an amateur marathoner, I won't be offering any advice. I've also committed to the Tone It Up Bikini Series. This will be the third time I've attempted it and the first time I plan on completing it. I've even made an Instagram account for this new endeavor (runfitlex) to which I've also decided to rename this blog to. I loved the ring that "For the Love of Running" had, but had found out the name had already been taken. I always come back to running and love following the journey of other women in the sport. I'm excited to be back to spending my free time with this new hobby. I must have really liked it before if I came back to it. So here we go, for a third time! 

Cat Mom

As some of you know, I recently became a cat mom to this sweet little face. I had started watching cat videos on YouTube and have always thought they were cute. My family has had more cats growing up than we've had dogs. This is still weird to me considering we all consider ourselves more of dog people than anything. We love our two Golden Retrievers. They are some of the most gentle, goofy, and loving creatures I've ever known. I missed that affection from a pet but knew that at this point in my life, I'm not ready for a dog. I don't have the time to take them for walks and living in an apartment, I can't let them run around in a backyard. So a cat it was. I had thought about the idea of getting one for at least a month before I jumped on it. Well I didn't really jump on it per say.

My roommate and I went to breakfast one morning and on the way I had seen a sign for the Humane Society. I told the roomie that I didn't know that's where it was and she said "yeah, we can go there after breakfast and look at kittens if you want." I agreed but told her not to let me leave with a kitten. I didn't exactly leave with one. I saw her in the cage and fell in love. She was playing with her sisters and wasn't afraid of me handling her. I could tell she had quite the personality. We stood in the cat room for probably 20 minutes before my roommate said "you want her, don't you." I said yes in kind of a guilty voice. She suggested we just go to the receptionist and ask about adoption fees. We did and I didn't have enough cash on me but they said they'd hold her for on hour while I made my decision. We drove home and I thought about her the whole time. So I went back to the Humane Society and paid the adoption fees and I was now the mom to a sweet, little gray and white polydactyl kitten.

It took me a few days to name her. I was thinking Ellie initially but knew it didn't fit her. I was on Skype with Mom and Dad and told them I needed some name suggestions. Mom knew I had been a big Disney fan growing up so she started throwing out names of princesses but none of them worked. She mentioned Nala and I liked that one too but nope. So Dad threw out Winnie and I thought about it for a couple seconds and knew that's what her name was. I looked up the meaning of the name on Wikipedia and found "fair one; white and smooth; soft; happiness; fair and pure". All of these words fit her to a T. I mean, granted she's not always fair and pure because she's a kitten. She likes to bite me but I'll take it. Winnie makes up for it in her sweet face and her snuggles. Like right now she's curled up with her head on my feet.

Expect to see a whole lot more pictures of this girl because I'm obsessed with her. My friends now joke that I'm a cat lady and they're right, but it's fine because if they had her they would be too.