Weekly +/- and a Winner!

First, the moment for which you've all been waiting. The winner of the Good Mood Giveaway is...

Eliz from The Sweet Life, who said "Laughing with my husband before bed puts me in a good mood."

Thanks to everyone who entered my little contest. Just so you know, I assigned a number to each person who commented or tweeted (some folks got two numbers if they did both things) and then used the fancy number generator to choose a winner. Very scientific and I thought some of you might appreciate that. ;)  I like hosting contest and I hope to have more in the future, mostly so I can give more things away to my lovely readers!


In other news, this week has been a long one. Here's the run down: 

-  I've been very congested the last two days, even though I feel fine otherwise. Not sure if it's allergies or the chlorine from the pool, but it's definitely annoying.

- Yesterday I came home for lunch and found that someone had taken most of my shoes from my closet and placed them in the middle of the bedroom floor. And by "someone," I mean "Calvin."

- Between my faux-cold, the literally freezing weather (seriously, Texas, where's my average of 60F for the winter months?) and adding new exercises to my workout routine, running has taken a back seat this week. Not a huge deal since I don't have any races coming up, but April and May will be here before you know it and then it will RACE CENTRAL! I will run more next week.

That was the list of not-so-good. Now, for the list of much-much-better! 

Photo credit: Aprile C

+ My sister Susan (the middle one) is the assistant photo editor for Family Circle magazine and her job gave her a press trip - four days and three nights on Florida's Emerald Coast, most expenses paid. She is able to bring one guest and she has chosen... me! All I had to do was buy my own plane ticket, which I did, immediately. We are getting our itinerary in a few days and we'll have to do some "family friendly activities" while we're there, which is 100% fine with me. My first choice is yoga on the beach; her's is a dolphin cruise. No matter how we spend our time, though, we'll be on the beach and - more importantly - together. I love my family (even though they drive me crazy) and the biggest tragedy in my life is that I do not live closer to them.

+ This was the week I started rock climbing AND swimming again. It feels so good to expand my fitness horizons - especially in the pool. I didn't realize how much I liked swimming and how much I missed it. I'm excited to get better and maybe even learn a second stroke!

+ I finally finished and submitted my last grad school application. Whew! I'm glad that's over. I don't know when I'll start to hear back from schools, but it probably won't be until the end of February at the earliest. Which is a lot sooner than it seems. Eek!

+ Weekend plans include: an annual game of flag football, late afternoon runs, long yoga classes, banana bread, letting the dogs off-leash, and finally submitting two stories to literary journals. It's a weekend I'm looking forward to, and I hope the same can be said for yours. Happy Friday!