Unexpected Compliments, Battle Progress, and 10k Fears

My youngest son Ethan is 8 years old and very much like his mother. He's the kind of kid who will tell you the truth, but tries to put it in the best way possible. For example, don't ever ask my child if your butt looks big in your jeans if you're not ready to hear that those jeans might not be working for you. His reponse would probably be something like, "Yeah, it does, but I like the color!" *lol* I pity any woman that has to marry him someday (maybe he'll learn by then!). Still, he's the kid I take with me to go shopping because he'll tell me if an outfit looks good on me or not and I'll know he means it.

Of course, this can be a little hard to take when the self-esteem isn't too high. This is the same child who, after I tried on several size 28 skirts that actually fit me at LB a couple weeks ago, said, "You can't wear those to work!" When I asked him why not he said, simply, "People will laugh at you." It wasn't until he saw the look of hurt on my face that he said, "Mom, skirts just aren't your thing. Why don't you try on these pants instead?" It's true, my legs aren't great and skirts do not flatter me YET. But still, it stung pretty bad.

This morning I dressed for work and walked out of my bedroom as he was getting some clothes out of the dryer. He turns to me and said, "Wow! You look skinnier!" *rofl* It was the best compliment I could get today because I know he's not trying to please me...he's telling his truth, just like he always does. I smiled and thanked him and then noticed I was walking just a little bit taller.

Too many times we search for compliments during this process, and when they come they're fun to hear...but it's these unexpected compliments from the most unlikely sources that really make the journey all worth it! Today, I look skinnier. It could be the clothes I put on (these pants really are starting to fit me the right way!) today, but for whatever reason, today I feel like I'm 10 pounds lighter than I was yesterday. So far, September, you're doing me good!

I also got another compliment last night from a girl at the gym who remarked on my endurance. I guess my face has become a regular there (told you I was a gym rat!) which is funny considering I've taken more days off from the gym in the past 2 weeks than I have the past 2 months since starting there! The trainer saw me again last night too and said, "Hey! So you come in the evenings too?" *shrug* Maybe she's seen me there during the day on a Friday, the only day time at the gym I get. One of the workers actually thought I had been in there twice yesterday prompting the comment. I told her that while I wished I could do morning workouts, my work schedule doesn't work to allow that. The gym opens at 6:30am and I have to leave my side of town by 7am in order to get to work on time at 8.
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Battle 2 Progress:
Battle 2 = 355

Today the scale gave me a 357.0 after days of 358.4 over and over again! (Except for Monday when it went up to 359 because I was so sick.) I have to say, I have been taking a little more time away from the gym lately. First because I was sick, but also because this week it's important for me to rest some. The 10k is Saturday and I'm officially in freak-out mode! *lol*

Yesterday I learned that the race course is all pretty flat for the 5k portion (I think the 5k and 10k may be combined, the 10k'ers just break off after a while), and then mile 3-4 includes a 400+ foot climb pretty straight up to the Spring Hill Cemetary. I look at this hill every day from my work and it scares me to think I would ever have to walk up it...and now I've paid 25 bucks for the honor of doing just that! What have I gotten myself into??


That's the hill. O-M-G!

So, yes...according to the elevation chart, we're pretty flat for the first 3 miles or so, then a little after mile 3 we climb that hill, then it's pretty much flat, and then back down the hill and flat again at the finish. I can do this....I can do this...I can do this...Can I Do This? *FREAKING OUT!!*

The rest of my day includes:
* Lunch with the bestie
* Dinner (sushi) or shopping between jobs
* Sending off a job application
* Council Meeting and reporting
* A chat with my friend at the paper, hopefully about the paper situation
* Working in a workout somewhere! Might have to be 30DS Day 2 at 10pm! EEP!

I made 2 decisions yesterday:

1) I may take back the size 28 jeans I bought. I wore my pants yesterday and they were so big on me. I need to see if I can wear a 26. Even if it's tight, I should have them instead of buying loose 28s! At least I can work my way into the tight pair.

2) December will be my 2 year mark with the part-time paper gig. I like it, but they've hired some interns instead of me in the past 2 years, and I think they may be about to do that again. I don't really want to keep putting in the time if nothing's going to come of it, so I think I'm going to hold out until December, and then if they don't make it a permanent thing, I'm going to let that job go. The money doesn't justify me staying there, and if they aren't going to consider promoting me to FT staff then I need to start focusing my efforts elsewhere. These long 15 hour days just about KILL me and I think 2 years is a good blurb for the resume to apply to other journalistic jobs.