This is the Title of an Uncreative Violinist.:)

What a great day.  Both my family and my in-laws drove into Columbus to help me celebrate the big 3-0.  Good food at an Italian restaurant, one of my favorite cakes ever, and overly generous gifts (even though Christmas was just days ago.  Sometimes a December birthday can be both a blessing and curse, depending on which end you're on).  I'm sure I need it, but it was still funny to receive an anti-aging skin care line from Mary Kay from my mother as one of my presents. Parents are staying in town for a few more days to hang out and I have about half a week left to enjoy my vacation.  House is completely clean, so I can truly relax these next few days.  I'm really blessed to have a great family and to have such great in-laws. Just 10 more years and I'm "over the hill"! Ahhh!  Nah, I'm completely looking forward to new experiences and growing older, and hopefully, wiser.

It's probably about time I updated, right?  What can I say, except I'm really trying to absorb and enjoy this longish holiday break.  Mine started on Friday when we drove up to my in-laws and surprised my MIL, since she thought we weren't showing up until Christmas Eve.  We spent five days there and decided to beat the snow storm and come home last night.  SO glad we did because we got snowed in today.  And that was totally okay with me.  I spent four hours cleaning the upstairs and have spent the last couple hours snuggled in bed with my pup, reading my Kindle, watching re-runs and scouring the internet. How was your Christmas?  Ryan and I were loaded with great gifts this year; lots of kitchen-related items, which is always great.  Lots of gift cards (also from students, which I'm always grateful for) and a TON of candy (still haven't quite gotten a handle on a solid workout routine...maybe tomorrow...) and half of my gifts from everyone allud...

It's been a long week, and it's going to be another long week and a half-ish until I officially start my Christmas vacation.  Including weekends, I have about 13 days off, thanks to Christmas and New Years both falling on Tuesdays.  Thank the Lord.  I need the break. Last year, I made the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever to give to my students during the holiday; this year, I'd like to make a variety of cookies and/or baked goods to give away to students and also my fellow teachers.  So, I'm on the look out for easy, but yummy recipes and I hope to have a list and all my ingredients by the weekend, so I can get cracking on them before next week. I also thought about doing holiday letters to send to everyone...but that hasn't happened yet.  Ryan kind of frowned upon that (probably b/c he thinks our lives are boring and not worth sharing with the world...hello! I have this blog, so too late for that!), but if I can muster up the will to do them this wee...

Got home from teaching and hastily put together dinner from last night's leftovers (fish sandwich...SO much better than what I usually get from a restaurant) and then ran upstairs to change into workout clothes before I could come up with any excuses or get too comfortable on the couch watching a movie.  I did another 5K on the rowing machine.  Easy peasy.  After yesterday's workout, my upper arms felt sore...a GOOD feeling!  I think I need to work on better form with my rowing because after a few minutes, my back gets sore and in the past, I've always quit early on using that as an excuse.  The more I do it though--just like running or anything else, for that matter--I find I can tolerate the pain and/or the dullness of the workout. With that, I'm off to bed earlier than normal.  Another bad habit of mine--staying up WAY too late.  Only because I don't have to be anywhere in the mornings, but still, I could use that time to do tons of stuff.  ...

My running buddy--whom I haven't run with in quite awhile--left a message last night asking if I wanted to go for a short run this morning.  I was all for it, but we both woke up to really yucky rain. She decided to go to her gym, and I decided to do a 5K on our rowing machine, which I haven't done in a very long time.  My runs have been sporadic and lately, I've been thinking of doing other things other than running. I've talked about my husband completing the P90X program, and now I think it's time for me to try it (for real) as well.  So far into December it hasn't really been that cold, and it's really okay for running--but if it's anywhere below 65 degrees, I just want to stay indoors to get my sweat on.  Which is why rowing and listening to Tony Horton is what I'm considering for the winter months. Something I wasn't expecting:  I lost 2-3 lbs. in the last month and a half, which is the period of time I've been working out the least...