Motivational Monday ~ Halfway Point for 2014

Today is the last day of June and that means half of 2014 is gone. Wow. Seems crazy! I still feel like I'm waiting for another snow storm to hit and for me to freak out because my little car doesn't handle snow.

But, since we're at the half way point, I want to look back on the last 6 months and see where it all went.

January we received the bad news that our sweet little Higgy cat had cancer. It was devastating news as we had lost Higgy's brother Pooka just 6 months earlier.

January and February brought a ton of snow! I don't know what happened to us this year, but we seemed to be covered in snow most of the winter. I love winter, cold weather and generally snow, but this year was a bit much.

March saw us celebrating Higgy's 16th birthday! When he was diagnosed with cancer in January none of us thought he would see it. But, he did! It was epic too.

March also saw two races being run! Ran my favorite race of the year at the St. Patrick's Day 5k in Baltimore. It just has an amazing view of runners in the first quarter mile as we all run downhill in a sea of green. At the end of the month I ran the inaugural The Love Run Half Marathon in Philadelphia. It was a nice race which I ran exceedingly slow, but until the last mile I had a good time with. What made it memorable was it rained/down poured literally all 13.1 miles + the before and after. I met a wonderful runner who I ran the last four miles with. She was struggling as we ran, but we kept at it. When I struggled in the last mile because my hands hurt so badly, she kept me going and refused to leave me. It was a great experience - rain and all!

April brought the Sole of the City 10k in Baltimore. Hubby and I have been running this race since it started three years ago. They changed the course up a bit this year and I really enjoyed the run around Fells Point. It was my first time there. It looked fun and we swear we will go back!

April also was the month a sprained my ankle pretty badly. I started the C25k program earlier in the week and went to the Y to finish week one. Afterwards I went to take some images around the city and walked too close to an area of sidewalk that was uneven. I went down hard. Positive is my fancy camera didn't hit the sidewalk. (I'm still dealing with ankle pain from this injury!)

May brought me to tears as we had to say good bye to my sweet Higgy. He had been having some issues around his back legs/tail and during the last couple weeks of April and the beginning of May he went quickly downhill. When we brought him into the vet's office, even he said he understood why we made the decision we did. It was again one of the worst things I've ever had to do in my life.

May (hopefully) brought relief to hubby. He had surgery on his calves to stop the pain he's been having in his calves. For a couple weeks he was pretty much immobile and I did everything. During that time I realized I'm not good at being everything to everyone. LOL!

June had me running my first (and only) Color Run. I was supposed to run it with a friend, but he stood me up. I was very lucky in that I ran into a co-worker on the course and we finished the race together. It was really nice as I don't interact with her much. That really made the race a much better experience.

June also had me running the Glow Run 5k in Harrisburg with another co-worker (who really is a good friend). We had a blast! Such a difference from the week before. We just went out, had fun, ran when we could & walked when we couldn't. We encouraged each other and laughed at each other (in the good friend way). The race was so great we weren't even finished the first mile and we talked about doing it again next year!

June brought us the finishing touches to the deciding factor on our deck project - we were approved for our loan and we agreed to a contractor. We started the process in February, so it made me really happy to have it all decided!

Wow. It's been a pretty eventful six months. It didn't go the way I would have wanted it to overall, but there were some wonderful things that I am glad I had a chance to do.

And now it will be July and the next six months are before me. What will they hold? How will they unfold? Can I continue to make changes in my life to make me happy? Here's to the next six months of 2014! May they be fruitful, fun, happy, and educational!
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