With a little help from my friends

According to my self-imposed training schedule for the NYC Marathon, I was scheduled for 16 miles this morning. I was dreading it a little bit, especially after having the wheels come off last weekend. I really, really didn't want to run endless miles alone in the dark again.

But then my wonderful running friends saved the day.

One e-mailed and said she'd meet me at 5:45 for my first few miles. And then Liz from Peace, Love and Guacamole volunteered to show up for the early shift, too. I ended up getting to the Trail early, so I ran a warm-up mile before meeting up with Liz and J. Then the three of us set off on the four-mile loop. It was just so lovely to be running with friends and having people to talk to. I didn't even notice as the miles went by.

We got back to the start of the Trail at 6:30, and Liz headed for home. But J and I were joined by several other friends, and we headed out for the five-mile loop. We were running east as the sun was coming up, and the Austin skyline looked so beautiful with its bright orange backdrop. And again, I didn't even notice the miles.

When we got back to the start of the Trail, it was filled with lots and lots of runners dressed in yellow in honor of Livestrong Day. After saying chatting with friends for a few minutes, I grabbed gatorade and gu and started my final six miles solo.

I really didn't mind being alone for the last bit of the run. In fact, I preferred it that way. I knew I would be slowing down and walking here and there, and I didn't want to have to worry about keeping up with anyone. So I popped on my iPod and enjoyed my run.

Having company for the first 10 miles got me through the toughest part of the run - the part where the little voices in my head start telling me that I'm not going to make it and that I am crazy for even attempting such a thing. By the time I only had six miles left, I knew I had the run in the bag, and I could ignore the voices.

After I finished, I stopped at a quickie mart for some grapefruit juice and headed home to an empty, silent house. B and the big three are camping for the weekend, and Elizabeth spent the night with my mother-in-law. I was able to take an hour-long nap in peace and quiet.

This was one of those mornings that makes me really love my friends, running, Austin and life in general.

House Hunting

Over the past few long, hot months, it has become abundantly clear that we have outgrown this house. We have six people living in a 1550 sq/ft, 3 bedroom, 2 bath house that feels smaller by the day.

Four of the six people here are short, loud and messy. One of those short people loves nothing more than running as fast as he can from one end of the house yelling at the top of his lungs. Two of the short people are pack rats, collecting every shiny bit of paper or plastic that they come across.

One of the two non-short people living here works from home full-time, locked behind the door to his office. While it's nice that he's locked away, closing the office door cuts off the back of the house to the rest of us, which means that when I want to push the kids outside to play, I have to send them out the front door and around to the side gate. And given my kids' attention spans, anything can happen in the 30 feet between the door and the gate.

I also work from home, which means I'm usually perched at the kitchen table next to the kids while they are doing artwork or playing with play-doh or just running around the house screaming. It's not an ideal situation.

So even though the thought of moving makes me cry, I've allowed B to start the process of finding a house. Because he's in real estate, he has access to all of the house listings in the area.

I hate the idea of moving, not because I'm particularly attached to this house, but because I love where we live. We're in a great little neighborhood that's close in to Austin. It doesn't take me longer than 10 minutes to get anywhere I need to go. The girls' school is walking distance, as are the neighborhood pool and park. We have a little shopping center with cool, retro family-owned pharmacy, grocery store, deli and barber shop. It's a nice little spot.

We also have wonderful neighbors. Our kids have all grown up together and are almost like siblings. Even better, all the parents get along, too. We go on annual beach trips with two of the other families, and two of the neighbor moms are going with me as my pit crew for the NYC marathon. We have our own little village right here.

But.

The rational part of me has to overcome all these emotional reasons to not move. We need more space.

This weekend we started looking. B put together a list of houses in our price range with the right number of bedrooms, the right square footage and pools (we've promised the girls a pool as a reward for moving). Unfortunately, to get the size house we want with a pool at a price we can afford, we're going to have to move out of central Austin. The question is how far I'm willing to move.

Some of the houses B put on the list were far enough away that they were in neighboring towns - Dripping Springs, Round Rock, and Leander. I put my foot down on all of those.

I'm also having a problem reconciling myself to the idea of living in a "new," fancy house. All the houses B pulled this weekend were built in the last 10 years and have vaulted ceilings, granite kitchen counters, play rooms, formal dining rooms and the like. Our house is 60 years old and has creaky wood floors, mystery light switches and doors that don't close all the way.

I told B that we're going to be the redneck, hillbilly neighbors without any furniture and newspaper covering the windows.

Right now our plan is to look at the different areas we've agreed on and see what kind of houses are available. And we need to get our house ready to sell - paint the whole thing, re-do the kitchen, fix our bathroom tiles.

I predict lots of tears and drinking on my part and lots of eye-rolling and sighing on B's.

Blizzard 2010 - Austin style

I know everyone in the north has had to deal with months of bitter cold, horrible winter storms, and snowfall that's being measured in feet rather than inches, but we've had it bad down here in Austin, too.

Take this week - Sunday was sunny and 85 degrees. We had to turn on the air conditioning in the car on the way home from Cirque du Soleil. And then yesterday - it snowed. It was practically a blizzard. Some schools in Austin closed early, and others opened late this morning. There was a run on marshmallows and hot chocolate at the stores. It was chaos!

All for a whopping half inch of snow.

I mean, you can hardly see across the street for all the snow coming down.

It was so deep that Campbell could barely walk in it.

And we nearly lost Elizabeth in a snowdrift.

Ella and Lily and the neighbors were able to build a giant snowman with all the snow in the yard.

The snow lingered for hours after the sun came up this morning. You can't even imagine the mess on the roadways. Thank goodness TXDoT sent out sand trucks.

We'll be talking about the Blizzard of '10 for years to come.

This is why I live in Texas

I'm apologizing in advance to readers like Hallie and Heidi who, by the look of the pictures they've posted, are drowning in snow.

But today is one of those perfect days here in Austin. It was 61 degrees when I ran at 6:30 this morning, which was quite a change from the 36 degrees we ran in yesterday morning. Now it's in the low 70s with big-ass Texas blue skies without a cloud in sight.

The kids have spent pretty much all morning playing outside, first in the front yard with their friends and then in the back yard with each other. As soon as we finish lunch, we'll be hopping on our bikes and riding up to the park for more outdoors time.

It's just a really, really lovely day. Someone remind of this post in August when I'm bitching about weeks of the 100+ degree weather that I hate ever so much.

On Earth as it is in Austin

Despite being exhausted from being alone with the kids since Wednesday, I ended up having a pretty good day. We went to a birthday party in the morning, and I got to visit with some friends I haven't seen in a while. Then we went to dinner at Central Market with Heidi, Matilda and William, and it was a great way to end the day. I had considered taking the kids to see bike races downtown, but I decided that was a disaster waiting to happen. Central Market was a much saner choice.

The weather was great: cool and not too humid. The kids ran around on the playground and got nice and worn out. Campbell hung out in his stroller and watched the fun. Everyone behaved during dinner and then played on the playground a little longer. As we were finishing up a band was starting to play, and the place was packed with families and little kids running around. I watched all the commotion and just felt so glad to be in Austin. I'm sure other towns have things like Central Market, but I think places like that are harder to come by in big cities. Plus I ran into two friends while we were there - I know my parents never go to restaurants in Atlanta and just bump into people they know. Well there was the time my sister literally ran into David Justice and Halle Berry, but that's a story for another time.

Overall, it was just a great night to be living in Austin, Texas. Now, if I can only get all three kids to go to sleep - including the one who is sitting on my lap, reading this as I type and giggling.